In recent years there has been a growth in interest in studying the
heart from the perspective of the physical sciences: mechanics, fluid
flow, electromechanics. This volume is the result of a workshop held in
July 1989 at the Institute for Nonlinear Sciences at the University of
California at San Diego that brought together scientists and clinicians
with graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who shared an interest
in the heart. The chapters were prepared by the invited speakers as
didactic reviews of their subjects but also include the structure,
mechanical properties, and function of the heart and the myocardium,
electrical activity of the heart and myocardium, and mathematical models
of heart function.