Biological and earth scientists explore how creatures--mostly micro-organisms--can thrive in extreme hot, cold, salty, acid, alkali, and pressure. Their topics include functional genomics in thermophilic micro-organisms, whether Lake Vostok and the subglacial lakes of Antarctica host life, molecular adaptation to high salt, mechanisms to tolerate metal and acid toxicity, and environmental and taxonomic biodiversity of gram-positive alkaliphiles. Other chapters look at the search for life in the universe, extremophiles as biocatalysts for industrial biotechnology, and lessons for early evolution and border conditions of life. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)