Astrobiology-which studies the intimate relationship between life and the cosmos-is a fast-growing field that touches on aspects of cosmology, astrophysics, and chemistry. In the first scholarly overview of this dynamic field, biochemists Kevin W. Plaxco and Michael Gross tell the story of life from the Big Bang to the present.

Biography

Kevin W. Plaxco is an associate professor of chemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Michael Gross is a science writer based at Oxford.