Several novel aspects of extremophiles are covered in this book; the focus is firstly on unusual and less explored ecosystems such as marine hypersaline deeps, cave environments, desert sands and man-made clean rooms for spacecraft assembly. Secondly, the increasingly complex field of applications from extremophile research is treated and examples such as novel psychrophilic enzymes, compounds from halophiles, detection strategies for potential extraterrestrial life forms and attempts of large scale desertification control are presented.