Life's Matrix

A Biography of Water

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by Philip Ball

University of California Press

Due/Published May 2001, 429 pages, paper

ISBN 0520230086

New in paper, with a new preface (S01)

One of those interesting books that dwells on something to which most of us just don't devote so much attention. Water. What is it? Where is it? Where is it going? What's happening to it? . . . Drink? Ball writes of water's origins, history, and unique physical character. 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.

"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

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