Muscle design and function is highly variable among organisms, and research in this area takes advantage of this diversity to help understand the rules of muscle metabolic construction. One of the principal goals is to understand the metabolic processes associated with contraction and recovery in intact muscle fibers. For instance, we are interested in how cellular organization and diffusive processes within cells effect muscle metabolic function, and ultimately how this relates to whole organism function. Several species of marine and terrestrial organisms are used because the unique properties of their muscle fibers make them ideal for certain types of studies. A variety of techniques are used in these analyses, including nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of living tissues, muscle contraction measurements, microscopic methods, and an array of standard biochemical and physiological approaches. For marine mammal studies, gross and microscopic morphology, histochemistry and biomechancial techniques are used.