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I t p a y s t o b e A B M P C e r t i f i e d : w w w. a b m p . c o m / g o / c e r t i f i e d c e n t r a l 85 5 Short Stories About Muscle Tissue Illustrations by Robin Dorn, LMP. By Andrew Biel I f you're old enough to recall the classic TV series Mission: Impossible (or its recent movie spin-offs), you'll recall that part of the fun was fi guring out how the team of super agents was going to complete an assignment that seemed so . . . impossible. In the end, they always triumphed—with Peter Graves's hair looking perfect. But I wonder how they'd accomplish this mission? (Tape player starts.) Your mission—if you choose to accept it—is to produce a substance that can shorten, lengthen, or hold itself at any length in between. It needs to support a load many times heavier than itself and cannot be made out of wood or metal, nor joined by nuts and bolts. It must be created from anatomical matter. That's right—fl esh and blood. Oh, one last detail: the essential parts and pieces that will produce this material's amazing attributes can only be visible with an electron microscope. This tape will self-destruct in fi ve seconds. This might be one mission they would choose not to accept. After all, to produce a single fi ber of muscle tissue—let alone an entire myofascial unit with a muscle belly, fascial components, and tendons— stands apart as one of nature's most miraculous achievements. With all of this in mind, let's take a look at fi ve short stories that shed some light on the properties, roles, and actions of this impossibly spectacular material.