Book excerpt: In this volume of Cell and Molecular Responses to Stress articles provide up-to-date information on key areas of signal sensing (sensing of pain, heat, cold, light, infrared radiation), molecules involved in the intracellular transmission of these signals, metabolic responses to stress including changes in gene expression and production of specialized proteins that aid cell responses to factors including interrupted blood supply (ischemia), oxygen limitation (hypoxia/anoxia), freezing and dehydration, amino acid limitation, radiation and processing drugs. There are chapters which also provide insights into new technologies (such as cDNA arrays), analysis of metabolic control theory (a key method for analysing stress effects on cells), and examine how enzymes evolve in the face of stress.