This highly interdisciplinary 2007 book highlights many of theways in 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 constants ofnature lie within a narrow range that allows complexity and life toevolve and adapt. Here, these anthropic considerations are diversifiedin a host of new ways to identify the most sensitive features ofbiochemistry and astrobiology. Celebrating the classic 1913 work ofLawrence J. Henderson, The Fitness of the Environment for Life, thisbook looks at the delicate balance between chemistry and the ambientconditions in the universe that permit complex chemical networks andstructures to exist. It will appeal to a broad range of scientists,academics, and others interested in the origin and existence of life inour universe.