Reflecting a rich technical and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas, Water and Life: The Unique Properties of H20 focuses on the properties of water and its interaction with life. The book develops a variety of approaches that help to illuminate ways in which to address deeper questions with respect to the nature of the universe and our place within it.

Grouped in five broad parts, this collection examines the arguments of Lawrence J. Henderson and other scholars on the "fitness" of water for life as part of the physical and chemical properties of nature considered as a foundational environment within which life has emerged and evolved. Leading authorities delve into a range of themes and questions that span key areas of ongoing debate and uncertainty. They draw from the fields of chemistry, biology, biochemistry, planetary and earth sciences, physics, astronomy, and their subspecialties. Several chapters also deal with humanistic disciplines, such as the history of science and theology, to provide additional perspectives.

Bringing together highly esteemed researchers from multidisciplinary fields, this volume addresses fundamental questions relating to the possible role of water in the origin of life in the cosmos. It supports readers in their own explorations of the origin and meaning of life and the role of water in maintaining life.

'One of the best thriller writers working today. The conclusion to one of the most exciting espionage trilogies this century. THE best villain in modern spy fiction' - Tim Shipman, Chief Political Commentator, SUNDAY TIMES 'An engrossing, flawless fusion of globe-trotting adventure and evocative writing' - John Dugdale, SUNDAY TIMES Thriller of the Month 'The Survivor, like its predecessors, combines high-tech expertise with bare-knuckle thrills. It's like being strapped to a rocket. A triumph' - Mick Herron 'Conway's military experience imbues the bloody showdowns with bone-jarring authenticity' THE TIMES 'Terrifyingly plausible' - FINANCIAL TIMES Jude Lyon of MI6 has narrowly foiled the traitor Fowle's plot to level London, but the public are demanding answers. Answers the government doesn't have. As the country reels, a new populist political figure carves a stratospheric trajectory - but is he all he seems? In Moscow the President is furious. The world now knows the destructive power of the programme his people had been developing, and as the Russians scramble to understand how it got into Fowle's hands, they start to worry that perhaps it could be used against them . . . But Jude Lyon has just one question on his mind: Guy Fowle is missing, with nothing left to lose, So what is he planning next? Seething with political machinations, burning with blood-thumping action, and featuring the best returning MI6 operative since James Bond The Survivor brings the espionage novel crashing into the modern day. READER REVIEWS: 'A work of art' ***** Reader Review 'The plotting was excellent' ***** Reader Review 'Masterful' ***** Reader Review Terrific' ***** Reader Review 'Fast paced' ***** Reader Review

This highly interdisciplinary 2007 book highlights many of the ways in which chemistry plays a crucial role in making life an evolutionary possibility in the universe. Cosmologists and particle physicists have often explored how the observed laws and constants of nature lie within a narrow range that allows complexity and life to evolve and adapt. Here, these anthropic considerations are diversified in a host of new ways to identify the most sensitive features of biochemistry and astrobiology. Celebrating the classic 1913 work of Lawrence J. Henderson, The Fitness of the Environment for Life, this book looks at the delicate balance between chemistry and the ambient conditions in the universe that permit complex chemical networks and structures to exist. It will appeal to a broad range of scientists, academics, and others interested in the origin and existence of life in our universe.

One of the great enigmas of evolutionary biology has been how to treat animals of problematic systematic position. Many are known only as fossils, so this area has been of particular interest to palaeobiologists. This book represents a wide synthesis. It embraces not only general problems of animal classification of animals and new information on their molecular sequences that bear on their wider relationships, but also addresses more specific problems. These include details appraisals of both living and fossil groups. From the fossil record special emphasis is laid on examples from exceptionally preserved biotas that include the Burgess shale-type faunas of the Cambrian of south China and western North America, the Carboniferous Mazon Creek beds of Illinois, and the Jurassic Osteno beds of northern Italy. In addition, experimental studies of soft-patrt preservation in jellyfish are relevant to comparable preservation in the fossil record.

This highly interdisciplinary 2007 book highlights many of the ways in which chemistry plays a crucial role in making life an evolutionary possibility in the universe. Cosmologists and particle physicists have often explored how the observed laws and constants of nature lie within a narrow range that allows complexity and life to evolve and adapt. Here, these anthropic considerations are diversified in a host of new ways to identify the most sensitive features of biochemistry and astrobiology. Celebrating the classic 1913 work of Lawrence J. Henderson, The Fitness of the Environment for Life, this book looks at the delicate balance between chemistry and the ambient conditions in the universe that permit complex chemical networks and structures to exist. It will appeal to a broad range of scientists, academics, and others interested in the origin and existence of life in our universe.

A stunning, apocalyptic standalone sequel to The Stranger. 'There's a healthy crop of younger spy writers just now, and Simon Conway is among the pick of the bunch. His military background renders the action scenes bloodily and the novel's apocalyptic scenario all too plausibly . . . Fire in the hole' - The Times 'This'll keep readers up all night. It's a hugely entertaining read, featuring the nastiest, most charismatic villain of recent years, and barely pauses for breath throughout' - Mick Herron, author of Slough House 'A superb writer, with great imagination, inventiveness and the ability to portray events with simplicity and urgency' - Michael Jecks, author of Act of Vengeance 'Conway has created, with Jude Lyon, a very modern hero, and one who will run for many more stories, I hope. Basically, if you are going to read any thriller this year, make it this one' - Shots Magazine 'The most brilliant spy thriller' - Charlotte Philby, author of A Double Life The terrorist Guy Fowle has escaped from prison. Jude Lyon of MI-6 has been saved from a Syrian ambush by his lover - and enemy? - Julia Ermolaeva. A mysterious Russian has been murdered in London and his thumb cut off. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has made an unfortunate social connection at a party, which he hopes he can keep secret. And suddenly, the world is literally going up in flames. Jude needs to start putting together the pieces of this jigsaw and quickly, because someone is putting into play a terrifying Russian plan to disable and destroy the UK. Once it has begun, it is designed to be impossible to stop. Bad enough if that someone is the Russian government. Worse if it is the psychopathic genius Fowle, otherwise known as The Stranger. Packed with stunning action, political intrigue, authentic tradecraft, emotion, shocks and nail-biting suspense, The Saboteur takes the spy thriller to new heights.

The assassin's bullet misses, the Archduke's carriage moves forward, and a catastrophic war is avoided. So too with the history of life. Re-run the tape of life, as Stephen J. Gould claimed, and the outcome must be entirely different: an alien world, without humans and maybe not even intelligence. The history of life is littered with accidents: any twist or turn may lead to a completely different world. Now this view is being challenged. Simon Conway Morris explores the evidence demonstrating life's almost eerie ability to navigate to a single solution, repeatedly. Eyes, brains, tools, even culture: all are very much on the cards. So if these are all evolutionary inevitabilities, where are our counterparts across the galaxy? The tape of life can only run on a suitable planet, and it seems that such Earth-like planets may be much rarer than hoped. Inevitable humans, yes, but in a lonely Universe.

The assassin's bullet misses, the Archduke's carriage moves forward, and a catastrophic war is avoided. So too with the history of life. Re-run the tape of life, as Stephen J. Gould claimed, and the outcome must be entirely different: an alien world, without humans and maybe not even intelligence. The history of life is littered with accidents and any twist or turn may lead to a completely different world. Now this view is challenged in Simon Conway Morris' exploration of the evidence demonstrating life's almost eerie ability to repeatedly navigate towards a single solution. Are all evolutionary inevitabilities limited to the suitability of a planet? Where are our counterparts across the galaxy? If the tape of life can only run on a suitable planet, it seems that such Earth-like planets are much rarer than hoped, and we remain inevitably humans in a lonely Universe. Simon Conway Morris is the Ad Hominen Professor in the Earth Science Department at the University of Cambridge. Morris is also a fellow of St. John's College and the Royal Society. His research focuses on the study of the constraints on evolution, and the historical processes that lead to the emergence of complexity, especially with respect to the construction of the major animal body plans in the Cambrian explosion. His work is central to palaeobiology, but is also of great interest to molecular biologists and bioastronomers. Previous published works include The Crucible of Creation: Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals (Getty Center for Education in the Arts, 1999); and co-author of Solnhofen (Cambridge, 1990).

Jude Lyon of MI6 has narrowly foiled the traitor Fowle's plot to level London, but the public are demanding answers. Answers the government doesn't have. As the country reels, a new populist political figure carves a stratospheric trajectory - but is he all he seems? In Moscow the President is furious. The world now knows the destructive power of the programme his people had been developing, and as the Russians scramble to understand how it got into Fowle's hands, they start to worry that perhaps it could be used against them . . . But Jude Lyon has just one question on his mind: Guy Fowle is missing, with nothing left to lose, So what is he planning next? Seething with political machinations, burning with blood-thumping action, and featuring the best returning MI6 operative since James Bond The Survivor brings the espionage novel crashing into the modern day.

In The Crucible of Creation, paleontologist Simon Conway Morris describes the marvelous finds of the Burgess Shale--a fantastically rich deposit of bizarre and bewildering Cambrian fossils, located in Western Canada.
Conway Morris is one of the few paleontologists ever to explore the Burgess Shale, having been involved in the dig since 1972, and thus he is an ideal guide to this amazing discovery. Indeed, he provides a complete overview of this remarkable find, ranging from an informative, basic discussion of the origins of life and animals on earth, to a colorful description of Charles Walcott's discovery of the Burgess Shale and of the painstaking scientific work that went on there (as well as in Burgess collections held at Harvard and the Smithsonian), to an account of similar fossil finds in Greenland and in China. The heart of the book is an imaginative trip in a time machine, back to the Cambrian seas, where the reader sees first-hand the remarkable diversity of life as it existed then. And perhaps most important, Conway Morris examines the lessons to be learned from the Burgess Shale, especially as they apply to modern evolutionary thinking. In particular, he critiques the ideas of Stephen Jay Gould, whose best-selling book Wonderful Life drew on Conway Morris's Burgess Shale work. The author takes a fresh look at the evidence and draws quite different conclusions from Gould on the nature of evolution.
This finely illustrated volume takes the reader to the forefront of paleontology as it provides fresh insights into the nature of evolution and of life on earth.

A stunning, apocalyptic standalone sequel to The Stranger. The Terrorist Guy Fowle, known as the Stranger, escapes from prison. A mysterious Russian hacker is murdered in London and his thumb cut off. At the heart of government, the Chancellor of the Exchequer is desperate to keep a secret. It's a puzzle that Jude Lyon of MI6 must solve, and quickly. If he doesn't the world will literally go up in flames. ***** 'Violent, authentic and alarmingly believable story about modern spying' - Sun 'There's a healthy crop of younger spy writers ripening just now, and Simon Conway is among the pick of the bunch' - The Times 'A superb writer, with great imagination, inventiveness and the ability to portray events with simplicity and urgency' - Michael Jecks, author of Act of Vengeance 'Conway has created, with Jude Lyon, a very modern hero, and one who will run for many more stories, I hope. Basically, if you are going to read any thriller this year, make it this one' - Shots Magazine

For all fans of great thrillers, of authors such as James Swallow, Frank Gardner, Terry Hayes, John le Carre, The Stranger sweeps us onward at white-knuckle pace, riding alongside a killer from our deepest nightmares and in Jude Lyon, an MI6 agent who is both ruthless and vulnerable - a new hero for a new decade.

The new novel from the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award-winning author of A Loyal Spy

ISIS can't control him.

MI6 can't find him.

But he's coming...

Things change quickly in the world of espionage and clandestine operations. Jude Lyon of MI6 remembers the captured terrorist bomb-maker. He watched him being flown off to Syria, back when Syria was 'friendly'. No-one expected him to survive interrogation there.

Yet the man is alive and someone has broken him out of jail.

Bad news for the former foreign secretary who authorised his rendition. And Jude's boss Queen Bee who knew he wasn't a terrorist at all, but an innocent bystander. Now she calls Jude back from a dangerously enjoyable mission involving a Russian diplomat's wife.

He has a new job: close down this embarrassment. Fast.

But embarrassment is only the beginning. Someone is using the former prisoner to front a new and unspeakably terrifying campaign. Someone not even ISIS can control.

He is like a rumour, a myth, a whisper on the desert wind. But he is real and he is coming for us ...

He is the genius known only as ...

The Stranger.

In a North Sea storm a drilling rig sinks, taking with it the ten kilos of hashish that Calum Bean has hidden in its superstructure. When the bankrollers decide that Cal's kneecaps are a reasonable forfeit, his cousin, renegade army officer Seb MacCoinneach, comes to the rescue. But Seb has an agenda of his own. Turned down by the SAS, in fierce competition with his dead brother and in a bitter feud with his father, he masterminds a plan that will make fools of all those who have rejected him. Spurred on by his half-sister Madelene, a ruthless manipulator, he stars upon a lethal game in the name of freedom. And he needs Cal with him.

WINNER OF THE IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER AWARD 2010 FOR BEST THRILLER OF THE YEAR! The last time Jonah saw Nor ed-Din, he was lying face down in a pool of black water in the Khyber Pass. For many years, Jonah had been under the impression that he'd killed him there. How far can loyalty be stretched before it reaches a limit? Millions of lives depend on the answer, as a twisting road of betrayal and revenge leads from the mountains of Afghanistan to the heart of London . . . and a ticking bomb.

As science develops more and more sophisticated military hardware, inevitably it has also turned to the genetic 'enhancement' of military personnel. Scottish former police protection officer Harriet 'Harry' Armstrong discovers the body of a beautiful young woman outside the home of a powerful US Senator. Detective Michael Freeman knows this case means pressure - pressure to close the case quickly, pressure to keep the Senator out of it, pressure from his ambitious wife not to rock the political boat. But Harry and Freeman have both become involved in a conspiracy that is impossible to walk away from. What is the Senator's link to a shady genetic engineering company? Why does MI6 want Harry to take a job with the company's founder? An edgy combination of political thriller and police procedural, ROCK CREEK PARK represents another step in the brilliant career of CWA award-winning author Simon Conway.