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EDITORIAL INFORMATION

Molecules in the early Universe acted as natural temperature regulators, keeping the primordial gas cool and, in turn, allowing the galaxies and stars to be born. Even now, simple chemistries continue to control a wide variety of the exotic objects that populate our cosmos. What are the tools of the trade for the cosmic chemist and what can they teach us about the Universe in which we live? These are the questions answered in this engaging and informative guide to The Chemically Controlled Cosmos.

In clear, non-technical terms, and without formal mathematics, we learn how to study and understand the behaviour of molecules in a host of astronomical situations. We examine the formation of stars deep within interstellar clouds, the origin of our own Solar System, the cataclysmic deaths of massive stars that explode as supernovae, and the hearts of active galactic nuclei, the most powerful objects in the Universe. We are given an accesible introduction to a wealth of astrophysics and an understanding of how cosmic chemistry allows the investigation of many of the most exciting questions concerning astronomers today.

(Extracted from the dust jacket).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Contents.

-Preface.

-Acknowledgements.

-1- A Brief History.

-2- Setting the Astronomical Scene.

-3- The Tools of the Trade.

-4- Chemistry After the Big Bang.

-5- Interstellar Clouds - the Birthplaces of Stars.

-6- Star Formation.

-7- The Solar System at Birth.

-8- Stellar Winds and Outflows.

-9- Astronomical Masers Near Bright Stars.

-10- Supernovae: Fairly Big Bangs.

-11- Molecules in Active Galaxies.

-12- Epilogue.

-Index.

OUR REVIEW

Thomas Hartquist works for the Max-Plank Institute, and David Williams works for the University College London. In this work their aim is to divulge the importance of chemistry for the functioning of things, and especially in the physical universe, including its origin and evolution. To attain this objective they patiently try to explain it all in as basic a way as is possible. They go step by step, leading the readers to discover by themselves that the understanding of the chemistry of the observed objects not only allows us to understand its evolution but also to diagnose which conditions reing in them.

The observation of the different molecules by means of the different types of spectroscopy have become the bricks which have built the pyramid on which the knowledge revealed by astrophysics lies. From the small to the big, from past to present, the authors survey all the necessary ins and outs so as to emphasize the importance of cosmic chemistry, thus getting the reader, besides, to reach a world in some way new, from a different, attractive viewpoint which no doubt will make us hunger for a deeper study into this matter.