Christopher L.-H. Huang - Böcker

A lucid and comprehensive review of developments made in the understanding of cellular activation phenomena in striated muscle. Basic physical, mathematical, and physiological principles are covered to a more coherent level than currently available in published literature. The book consistently draws correlations both with cellular and molecular biological information and their physiological consequences and significance. Accessible both as a survey of basic concepts and as an authorative review of recent work in the field.The book succeeds in explaining complex biophysics in such a way that the non-expert reader obtains insights into the molecular mechanisms of muscle activation and their control mechanisms as well as providing the expert with the detailed mathematical and experimental evidence.

This well-established and acclaimed textbook introducing the rapidly growing field of nerve and muscle function has been completely revised and updated. Written with undergraduate students in mind, it begins with the fundamental principles demonstrated by the pioneering electrophysiological experiments on cell excitability. This leads to more challenging material recounting recent discoveries from applying modern biochemical, genetic, physiological and biophysical, experimental and mathematical analysis. The resulting interdisciplinary approach conveys a unified contemporary understanding of nerve and skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscle function at the molecular, cellular and systems levels. Emphasis on important strategic experiments throughout clarifies the basis for our current scientific views, highlights the excitement and challenge of biomedical discovery, and suggests directions for future advances. These fundamental ideas are then translated into discussions of related disease conditions and their clinical management. Now including colour illustrations, it is an invaluable text for students of physiology, neuroscience, cell biology and biophysics.