Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- 1 Introduction: extreme life -- WHAT IS EXTREME? -- THE LIFE BOX -- WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER? -- EXTREME LANGUAGE -- EXTENDING THE LIFE BOX -- RESISTANCE AND CAPACITY ADAPTATIONS -- SOME BASICS -- Normal and extreme conditions -- The necessities of life -- The forms of life -- Size matters -- EXTREME BIOLOGY -- 2 Be it ever so humble ... -- DESERTS -- Living in the desert -- Desert mammals -- Other desert vertebrates -- Desert invertebrates -- Desert plants -- Desert microorganisms -- TEMPORARY DESERTS AND TEMPORARY WATERS -- SALT LAKES AND SODA LAKES -- THE ANTARCTIC -- Antarctic terrestrial organisms -- Antarctic marine organisms -- THE ARCTIC -- MOUNTAINS -- THE BLEAK MIDWINTER -- IN THE DEPTHS -- The cold deep sea -- Hot vents and cold seeps -- The underworld -- LIFE WITHIN LIFE -- THE FEATURES OF EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS -- 3 Life without water -- LIFE RUNNING SHORT OF WATER -- LIFE WITHOUT WATER -- ANHYDROBIOTIC ORGANISMS -- A LITTLE DRY HISTORY -- THE ANHYDROBIOTIC STATE -- Further defining anhydrobiosis -- Anhydrobiosis and the nature of life -- Anhydrobiosis and extreme survival -- THE MECHANISMS OF ANHYDROBIOSIS IN ANIMALS -- Controlling water loss -- In the dry state -- The role of trehalose -- Is trehalose the answer? -- Recovering from anhydrobiosis -- THE MECHANISMS OF ANHYDROBIOSIS IN PLANTS -- ANHYDROBIOSIS IN MICROORGANISMS -- ANHYDROBIOSIS AND HUMANS -- HAS THE PROBLEM OF ANHYDROBIOSIS BEEN SOLVED? -- 4 The hot club -- TEMPERATURE AND LIFE -- Central heating and solar heating -- Dying from the heat -- Keeping cool -- Getting used to the heat -- THE MEMBERS OF THE HOT CLUB -- What's hot and what's not? -- Hot club plants and animals -- Hot club microbes -- HOT AND LOVING IT -- Thermostable molecules and membranes -- Repair and protection mechanisms.

Hot properties -- 5 Cold Lazarus -- COLD BIOLOGY -- Living in the freezer -- To freeze or not to freeze? -- AVOIDING FREEZING -- Freeze-avoiding insects -- Freeze avoidance in other invertebrates -- Polar fishes -- TOLERATING FREEZING -- Freezing-tolerant insects -- Other freezing-tolerant invertebrates -- Frigid frogs and cold turtles -- COLD TOLERANCE IN PLANTS -- MICROORGANISMS AND LOW TEMPERATURES -- RESISTANCE AND CAPACITY ADAPTATION TO LOW TEMPERATURES -- COOL APPLICATIONS -- 6 More tough choices -- UNDER PRESSURE -- Pressure effects -- Deep-sea organisms -- Adaptations to high pressure -- SWEET AND SOUR -- PASS THE SALT -- THE BREATH OF LIFE -- TOO MUCH SUN -- THEY'RE TRYING TO POISON ME! -- COMPOUNDING PROBLEMS -- 7 'It's life, Jim, but not as we know it!' -- WHAT IS LIFE? -- WHAT IS NEEDED FOR LIFE? -- THE ORIGIN OF LIFE ON EARTH -- LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE -- Venus -- Mars -- Jupiter and its moons -- Titan -- Elsewhere in the universe -- LIFE IN SPACE: INTERPLANETERY TRANSFER AND THE REVIVAL OF PANSPERMIA -- 8 An extreme biology -- WHAT IS EXTREME, REVISITED -- EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS -- EXTREME ORGANISMS -- EXTREME PHYSIOLOGY -- Problems with water -- Problems with membranes -- Problems with proteins -- Problems with genes -- A physiological definition of extreme? -- EXTREME ECOLOGY -- The characteristics of extreme environments -- The distribution and dispersal of extreme organisms -- Trade-offs by extreme organisms -- EXTREME EVOLUTION -- Frigid fish: a case study of evolution in an extreme environment -- What is extreme: an evolutionary solution? -- Is the deep sea extreme? -- Pioneers and stragglers -- THE CHALLANGE OF THE EXTREME -- Bibliography -- General -- 1-Introduction:extreme life -- 2-Be it ever so humble ... -- 3-Life without water -- 4-The hot club -- 5-Cold Lazarus -- 6-More tough choices.

7-'It's life, Jim, but not as we know it!' -- 8-An extreme biology -- Glossary -- Index.