One of the four elements of classical antiquity, water is central to the environment of our planet. In Life's Matrix, Philip Ball writes of water's origins, history, and unique physical character. As a geological agent, water shapes mountains, canyons, and coastlines, and when unleashed in hurricanes and floods its destructive power is awesome. Ball's provocative exploration of water on other planets highlights the possibilities of life beyond Earth. Life's Matrix also examines the grim realities of depletion of natural resources and its effects on the availability of water in the twenty-first century.

Philip Ball studied chemistry at Oxford and received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Bristol. He has worked for ten years as an editor at Nature magazine. He is the author of Designing the Molecular World: Chemistry for the 21st Century (1994), Made to Measure: New Materials for the 21st Century (1997), and The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature.

"In a prose style loaded with literary references and humor, this Nature magazine writer and editor describes for the lay reader the origin of the water molecule itself, immediately after the Big Bang; NASA's search for water in the farthest reaches of the solar system; many amusing anecdotes from the annals of scientific history; and no small amount of hard-core chemistry, physics and biology. . . .You will never again take for granted a warm bath, a misty morning or, most importantly, our finite supply of fresh water."—Frank Reiss, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Philip Ball is a brilliant science writer. . . . He has handled this incredibly complex scientific brief more skilfully and entertainingly than anybody else could have done."—Anna Paterson, Sunday Herald (Glasgow)

"For the hard science of water, as well as a sustained, bravura performance by a gifted explicator, Life's Matrix is well worth dipping into."—Dennis Drabelle, Washington Post Book World

"Ball is passionately interested in the physical and chemical nature of things. From Life's Matrix readers will gain an understanding of water from its most basic component on up."—Elizabeth Grossman, Chicago Tribune

"In a tour de force of scientific exposition, Philip Ball ranges from the cosmos to the inside of cells. . . . A reader can learn more interesting chemistry, physics, biology, geology, and environmental science from this volume than from a collection of reference books."—Harvey Shepard, Philadelphia Inquirer

"Marvellous. . . . This is one of the best science books of the year."—Graham Farmelo, New Scientist

"[A] fact-packed and pleasurably long flume ride of a book."—Publishers Weekly

"Ball's prose is lively, and he renders the most arcane-sounding phenomena, like planetesimals and Milankovitch cycles, understandable."—New York Times Book Review

“Ball's in-depth 'biography' is an engaging look at the chemical composition of H20, its ecology, our perception of water historically, and the mythology surrounding the substance.”—Science News

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book for 2000

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