Water

John Finney is Emeritus Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London and the London Centre for Nanotechnology. His research has focussed on liquids and disordered solids, beginning with his Ph.D. work with J.D. Bernal on liquid structure, subsequently developing to work on water, aqueous solutions and the role of water in protein stability and enzyme activity. He co-chaired the 2002 Gordon Research Conference on Water and Aqueous Solutions, organised a 2003 Royal Society Discussion Meeting on The molecular basis of life: is life possible without water? and co-edited Water and Life: the unique properties of H2O. He was a leading member of the research teams that have discovered four phases of ice, the first new phases to be found since the 1930s. From 1988 - 1993, he was Head of Neutron Science, and then Chief Scientist at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron Source, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

• 1. Water, water everywhere... ; 2. The water molecule and its interactions ; 3. Water as ice(s) ; 4. Water as a liquid - and as glas(ses) ; 5. The anomalies explained. ; 6. Water as a biomolecule ; 7. Some past and current controversies ; Further reading ; Index

a wake-up call to those who only think about it when their holiday's are washed out or their water bills arrive.