Though it is a pleasure to write a short foreword to this collection of excellent scientific papers covering a range of biological topics, the rather depressing feature is the small number of papers. All-electronic publishing is developing and your Editors do have great faith in it. One problem for potential authors has been the reluctance of the abstracting journals to pay any attention to electronic journals - perhaps Springer should make a rapid move in this area and start the first all-electronic journal abstracting this type of literature. However, even the paper citation journals are starting to pay attention to the medium. The particular advantages of all-electronic publishing are beginning to emerge more clearly and it is clear that publishing video material is a unique advantage of our format. Several papers took advantage of this - for example those by Riehle and others on cell behaviour in tunnels, by Bereiter-Hahn and Voss on zonation in the plasmalemma and by Pavlikova, Zicha, Chaloupkova and Vesely on cell motility of tumour cells. These papers made essential and extensive use of video material, publishing some material of great originality. The work on cell pola rity and calcium ions in Fucus embryos by Brownlee, Manison and Anning used animation to present their results in an especially clear way. The facility of use of animation is another special advantage of our type of publication that should be more widely used.

3:1 Effect of fasting and thermal acclimation on metabolism of juvenile axolotls (Ambystoma mexicanum)

3:2 Cell behaviour in tubes
3:3 Functional characterization of a muscarinic receptor in the smooth muscle of the shark (Squalus acanthias) ventral aorta
3:4 Deciphering the role of 14-3-3 proteins
3:5 Enzymes of urate synthesis and catabolism in the Gecarcinid land crab Gecarcoidea natalis.
3:6 Flight metabolism in carpenter bees and primary structure of their hypertrehalosaemic peptide
3:7 The use of a multiple antigen peptide to detect a minichromosome maintenance protein in pea (Pisum sativum)
3:8 A method of direct-viewing comparative analysis of tumour cell motility in vitro; effect of pH and adhesion on cells of different malignancy
3:9 The influence of hibernation patterns on the critical enzymes of lipogenesis and lipolysis in prairie dogs
3:10 The ecophysiological significance of lung-air retention during submersion by the air-breathing crabsCardisoma carnifex and Cardisoma hirtipes
3:11 Calcium, polarity and osmoregulation in Fucus embryos: one messenger, multiple messages
3:12 Do single mitochondria contain zones with different membrane potential?.