There are virtually hundreds of life scientists publishing hundreds of papers a year on numerous aspects of the cell cycle. The following are few of the topics covered: cell membrane organization, membrane components, cytoskeleton and associated proteins, cell motility, actin in dividing cells, surface modulating assemblies, microfilaments, microtubules, cleavage furrow, fusion, etc. In all these topics, lifescientists talk about, among others, the forces within the system, the motion within the system and the failure of the system. The concepts of force, motion and failure are, one way or another, all related to the structure of the cell and to the mechanics of the cell activities. When the concepts of mechanics and structure enter the problem then one has to talk about biomechanics; in this case, biomechanics of cytology which we would like to call "Cytbmechanics". However, a review of the journals, books and conference proceedings related to various aspects of cytology reveals that mechanicians have not yet entered the field of cytology at a noticeable level. Some lifescientists have indeed made use of the general principles of mechanics in their works; however, no truly interdisciplinary publication has yet appeared from the collaboration of mechanicians and lifescientists in the field of, for instance, cell division.

The NATO Advanced Study Institute on Biomechanics of Active Movement and Division of Cells was held September 19-29, 1993 in Istanbul and the Proceedings are presented in this volume. Sixty-eight scientists from sixteen countries attended. Prof. J. Bereiter-Hahn of Goethe-Universitat, Frankfurt, Germany, Prof. A.K. Harris of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA, Prof. R.M. Nerem of Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA and Prof. R. Skalak of the University of California, San Diego, USA were the members of the International Organizing Committee. As the Scientific Director of the Institute, I wish to express my sincere appreciation for their assistance without which the Institute could not have taken place. This Institute is the third one of the meetings which are now called "the NATO Istanbul Meetings on Cytomechanics". The first one was the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Biomechanics of Cell Division which was held October 12-17, 1986 in Istanbul. The Proceedings were published as NATO ASI Series A Life Sciences Vol. 132 by Plenum Press in 1987. The second one was the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Biomechanics of Active Movement and Deformation of Cells which was held September 3-13, 1989 in Istanbul. The Proceedings were published as NATO ASI Series H : Cell Biology Vol. 42 by Springer-Verlag in 1990.

Cytomechanics is the application of the classical principles of mechanics in cell biology. It is an applied science concerned with the description and evaluation of mechanical properties of cells and their organelles as well as of the forces exerted by them. Thus, this topic needs a truly interdisciplinary approach, and accordingly this volume gives an up-to-date account of the current research done on cell division, mitosis, cytokinesis, cell locomotion and cell deformation during normal development and the cytoskeletal role in cell shape. Biologists, biomechanicians, biophysicists, biochemists and biomathematicians here discuss the basic concepts of mechanics and thermodynamics, emphasizing their applicability to cell activities.

Systems Biomechanics of the Cell attempts to outline systems biomechanics of the cell as an emergent and promising discipline. The new field owes conceptually to cell mechanics, organism-level systems biomechanics, and biology of biochemical systems. Its distinct methodology is to elucidate the structure and behavior of the cell by analyzing the unintuitive collective effects of elementary physical forces that interact within the heritable cellular framework. The problematics amenable to this approach includes the variety of cellular activities that involve the form and movement of the cell body and boundary (nucleus, centrosome, microtubules, cortex, and membrane). Among the elementary system effects in the biomechanics of the cell, instability of symmetry, emergent irreversibility, and multiperiodic dissipative motion can be noted. Research results from recent journal articles are placed in this unifying framework. It is suggested that the emergent discipline has the potential to expand the spectrum of questions asked about the cell, and to further clarify the physical nature of animate matter and motion.

Developing organisms are systems in which the geometry, dynamics, and boundary conditions are all changing in the course of morphogenesis. The morphogenesis of cells and organisms appear to be mediated in part by the mechanically active components of the cytoskeleton. Mechanical forces have long been considered secondary to the effects of molecular mechanisms in cell growth, differentiation, and development. This volume explores the role of mechanical forces in cell growth and development and demonstrates its importance. This volume will prove invaluable to all biologists interested in the fundamentals of mechanical forces in development, from the advanced to the graduate researcher.

Exploring the mechanical features of biological cells, including their architecture and stability, this textbook is a pedagogical introduction to the interdisciplinary fields of cell mechanics and soft matter physics from both experimental and theoretical perspectives. This second edition has been greatly updated and expanded, with new chapters on complex filaments, the cell division cycle, the mechanisms of control and organization in the cell, and fluctuation phenomena. The textbook is now in full color which enhances the diagrams and allows the inclusion of new microscopy images. With around 280 end-of-chapter exercises exploring further applications, this textbook is ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in physics and biomedical engineering. A website hosted by the author contains extra support material, diagrams and lecture notes, and is available at www.cambridge.org/Boal.

Introductory Biomechanics is a new, integrated text written specifically for engineering students. It provides a broad overview of this important branch of the rapidly growing field of bioengineering. A wide selection of topics is presented, ranging from the mechanics of single cells to the dynamics of human movement. No prior biological knowledge is assumed and in each chapter, the relevant anatomy and physiology are first described. The biological system is then analyzed from a mechanical viewpoint by reducing it to its essential elements, using the laws of mechanics and then tying mechanical insights back to biological function. This integrated approach provides students with a deeper understanding of both the mechanics and the biology than from qualitative study alone. The text is supported by a wealth of illustrations, tables and examples, a large selection of suitable problems and hundreds of current references, making it an essential textbook for any biomechanics course.