Cover picture: Inhibition of Ca²⁺ sparks by ruthenium red, an SR Ca²⁺ release channel inhibitor, in permeabilized rat ventricular myocytes. The figure shows surface plots of averaged Ca²⁺ sparks under control conditions and in the presence of 5 mM ruthenium red. The ability of ruthenium red to reduce the magnitude of Ca²⁺ sparks implies that sparks are multi-channel events. See the article by Lukyanenko et al. on page 1273.