I am pleased to announce a special issue “Muscle Contraction Mechanism, Motor Proteins Function and Molecular Aspects of Water” to be published continuously and until  31 May 2008 in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067, IJMS). This special issue will be edited by Dr. Reuven Tirosh from the Biophysical Schottenstein Center, Bar Ilan University, Israel. The website for Special Issue “Muscle Contraction” is http://www.mdpi.org/ijms/specialissues/mmmc.htm.

As the publisher and managing editor and, as a chemist, I would like to publish and help to edit this special issue because I remember at the end of his book “The Nature of the Chemical Bond”,  Pauling mentioned muscle contraction as one of the few most important topics in molecular sciences. Over ten years ago when I was still actively reading on muscle contraction I presented a simple "balloon model" of the isobaric, isothermal and isochoric energy transduction process of muscle contraction (e.g., see: section 6.3 of my paper http://www.linshukun.com/ejtc027.pdf).

This special issue is open also for critical papers concerning the following controversial topics:
-    Experiments that refute a mechano-chemical cross-bridge action,
-    Alternative hypotheses to the motor-protein paradigm,
-    An active role for water,
-    Interdisciplinary implications to bioenergetic transformations.

Please visit the special issue website for more information.

A leading article for these topics: Tirosh, R. Ballistic Protons and Microwave-induced Water Solitons in Bioenergetic Transformations

Accepted papers will be published continuously until 31 May 2008. After closing this special issue, all papers published will be listed in a separated table of contents website at www.mdpi.org/ijms/specialissues/mmmc.htm. Therefore, papers can be submitted as soon as they are ready. For review papers a title and short abstract can be sent by e-mail to Reuven Tirosh and a copy to the Editorial Office.

IJMS is an international, peer-reviewed open-access journal (free to read on the Internet) published on the Internet at www.mdpi.org/ijms. It is indexed and abstracted by leading databases including Science Citation Index, Scopus, Chemical Abstracts and the Chemistry Citation Index.

IJMS maintains a rigorous and fast peer-review system. Accepted papers are immediately published online. Because this journal is an open-access journal, and articles are freely available on our website. The publication in this journal is supported by authors and their institutes by payment of article processing and open-access publication charges.

Manuscripts should be prepared according to the Instructions for Authors and submitted by e-mail to ijms@mdpi.org. The subject title of the message should be “Submission for IJMS Special Issue on Muscle Contraction”.

Please never hesitate to contact me if you should have any questions.

On behalf of the Guest Editor
Shu-Kun Lin, Ph.D.
Managing Editor
E-mail: ijms@mdpi.org

Dr. Reuven Tirosh
Guest Editor for the IJMS
E-mail: tiroshr1@mail.biu.ac.il
Phone:  +972-9-767-9341
The Biophysical Schottenstein Center
Physics Department
Bar Ilan University
Ramat-Gan 52900
Israel