- Preface -Early Development in Muscle Research and the Role of New Structureal Technologies -The Molecular Basis of Cross-Bridge Function -Molecular Synchronization in Actomyosin Motors from Single Molecule to Muscle Fiber via Nanomuscle -Distribution of Crossbridge States in Contracting Muscle -X-Ray Diffraction Studies of Striated Muscles -Conformational Change and Regulation of Myosin Molecules -Driving Filament Sliding: Weak Binding Cross-bridge states, Strong Binding Cross-bridge States, and the Power Stroke -Mysteries about Amplitude and Efficiency of Cross-bridge Powerstroke -Sarcomere Dynanmics, Stepwise Shortening, and the Nature of Contraction -Cross-bridge Formation Detected by Stiffness Measurements in Single Muscle Fibers -Non Cross-bridge Stiffness in Skeletal Muscle Fibers at Rest and During Activity -Nature's Strategy for Optimizing Power Generation in Insect Flight Muscle -From Crossbridges to Metabolism: System Biology for Energetics -Energetics, Mechanics, and Molecular Engineering of Calcium Cycling in Skeletal Muscle -Heat, Phosphorus NMR, and Microcalorimetry in Relation to the Mechanism of Filament Sliding -How Two-Foot Molecular Motors May Walk -Molecular Basis of Calcium Regulation of Striated Muscle Contraction -Mechanisms of Calcium Release from the Sarcoplasmic Reticulum in Skeletal Muscle -From Inward Spread of Activation, Active Elongation to the Effect of Organic Calcium Channel Blockers in Muscle Excitation-Contraction Coupling -Cardiac Myosin Binding Protein C: Modulator of Contractility -Human Atrial Myosin Light Chain 1 Expression Accentuates Heart Failure -Cytoplasmic Free Concentrations of Ca2+ in Skeletal Muscle Cells -Mysterious Beauty of Beating Heart: Cardiac Mechano-Energetico Informatics -Is Myosin Phosphorylation Sufficient to Regulate Smooth Muscle Contraction? -Comparative Aspects of Crossbridge Function: Skinned Fibre Studies -Dynamic Structures of Myosin, Kinesin, and Troponin as Detected by SDSL-ESR -Mutations of Transcription Factors in Human with Heart Disease for Understanding the Development and Mechanisms of Congenital Cardiovascular Heart Disease -General Discussion Part I: Skeletal Muscle Mechanics -General Discussion Part II: Skeletal Muscle Energetics -General Discussion Part III: Skeletal Muscle Ultrastructure -General Discussion Part IV: Cardiac Muscle -General Discussion Part V: Smooth Muscle -Concluding Remarks -Participant Photos -Participants -Index