Welcome to this Fourth Special Issue of Molecular Biology of the Cell on Forces on and within Cells. As with our other Special Issues, the journal's goal here is to focus attention on a major new direction in cell biology. In this case, it is the field of mechanobiology, which endeavours, broadly, to understand how mechanical forces are harnessed to drive cellular function and how force can also be a mode of biological information that regulates cell behavior. The collection of papers that we have in this issue reflects many current efforts to address these questions. While each of these papers is a distinct creative effort of its authors, I would like to draw your attention to a number of themes that emerge across these diverse studies.

中文翻译：

---

编辑介绍。

欢迎阅读《细胞分子生物学关于细胞内和细胞内力的第四期》。与我们的其他特刊一样，该杂志的目标是将注意力集中在细胞生物学的一个主要新方向上。在这种情况下，力学生物学领域广泛地致力于了解如何利用机械力来驱动细胞功能，以及力如何也可以成为调节细胞行为的生物学信息方式。我们在本期中收集的论文反映了当前为解决这些问题所做的许多努力。尽管每篇论文都是其作者的独特创意，但我想提请您注意这些多样化研究中出现的许多主题。