We might think of them as living on the very edge of existence. Referred to as extremophiles, these microorganisms exhibit the most radical capacity for adaptation in those harsh environments that are just barely conducive to the existence of cellular life. Unlocking the mechanisms and understanding the evolutionary development that allows these simple organisms to thrive can teach us much about microbiology in extremis. Highly diverse, these microorganisms have been found living in nearly every place explored to date. One example, thermophiles (literally: heat lovers) are microorganisms that thrive at temperatures above the mesophilic range of 25-400C. Until recently, due to the extreme environment they inhabit, the study of thermophiles was limited. However with the advent of new tools, particularly genetic and whole genome analysis and community sequencing, remarkable strides have been made in the study of these extreme examples of living adaptive organisms."Thermophiles: Biology and Technology at High Temperatures" presents a cogent summary of the progress made in studying these extremophiles and speaks directly to the implications of that progress. Offering information of great interest to researchers in molecular biology, microbiology, biochemistry, structural biology, biotechnology, bioremediation, structural genomics, industrial microbiology, and exobiology, this text provides a comprehensive review of the most recent literature in the thermophile field written by renowned experts from all across the world. Discover how thermophiles demonstrate extremes that indicate a lack of evolutionary constraints. Much is being learned from the study of thermophiles, especially our understanding of fundamental biology at the molecular level and the genetic mechanisms that permit adaptation and survival.Included in this volume is a discussion of protective strategies based on the resiliency of thermophiles, including their thermostability, which allow them to maintain structurally functional proteins. It also investigates whether hyperthermophiles employ protein phosphorylation-dephosphryation as a molecular regulatory mechanism, and provides significant clues regarding the synthesis of protein. By studying this extreme example of life, its subtle, yet exaggerated response mechanisms, and its development over the course of many short-lived generations, we may begin to understand the mechanisms in a number of diseases linked to improper protein folding, and also begin to more fully understand the ingenious design of DNA, and all that such an understanding implies regarding the health and survival of human life in a rapidly changing environment.