Recently scientists at the frontiers of biology have hypothesised the existence of life-forms that can only be called weird": organisms that live off acid rather than water microbes that thrive at temperatures & pressure levels so extreme that their cellular structures should break down even organisms that reproduce without DNA. The search for these strange life-forms spans the universe from the Martian permafrost the ammonia oceans of Jupiter's moons the hydrogen-rich atmospheres of giant planets the exotic ices on comets & the crusts of neutron stars. David Toomey brings us into the world of the researchers who have devoted their careers to "weird life". As they envision & discover ever stranger organisms here on earth they open up fascinating possibilities for the discovery of life in the rest of the universe."