This highly interdisciplinary book highlights many of the waysin which chemistry plays a crucial role in making life anevolutionary possibility in the universe. Cosmologists and particlephysicists have often explored how the observed laws and constantsof nature lie within a narrow range that allows complexity and lifeto evolve and adapt. Here, these anthropic considerations arediversified in a host of new ways to identify the most sensitivefeatures of biochemistry and astrobiology. Celebrating the classic1913 work of Lawrence J. Henderson, The Fitness of the Environmentfor Life, this book looks at the delicate balance between chemistryand the ambient conditions in the universe that permit complexchemical networks and structures to exist. It will appeal to abroad range of scientists, academics, and others interested in theorigin and existence of life in our universe.

This book examines the theology and ethics of land use,especially the practices of modern industrialized agriculture, inlight of critical biblical exegesis. Nine interrelated essaysexplore the biblical writers' pervasive concern for the care ofarable land against the background of the geography, socialstructures, and religious thought of ancient Israel. This approachconsistently brings out neglected aspects of texts, both poetry andprose, that are central to Jewish and Christian traditions. Ratherthan seeking solutions from the past, Davis creates a conversationbetween ancient texts and contemporary agrarian writers; thus sheprovides a fresh perspective from which to view the destructivepractices and assumptions that now dominate the global foodeconomy. The biblical exegesis is wide-ranging and sophisticated;the language is literate and accessible to a broad audience.

The emergence of observing systems such as acoustically-trackedfloats in the deep ocean, and surface drifters navigating bysatellite has seen renewed interest in Lagrangian fluid dynamics.Starting from the foundations of elementary kinematics and assumingsome familiarity of Eulerian fluid dynamics, this book reviews theclassical and new exact solutions of the Lagrangian framework, andthen addresses the general solvability of the resulting generalequations of motion. A unified account of turbulent diffusion anddispersion is offered, with applications among others to planktonpatchiness in the ocean. Written at graduate level, the bookprovides the first detailed and comprehensive analyticaldevelopment of the Lagrangian formulation of fluid dynamics, ofinterest not only to applied mathematicians but alsooceanographers, meteorologists, mechanical engineers,astrophysicists and indeed all investigators of the dynamics offluids.