The annual International Dictyostelium Conference will be held in Baltimore, MD USA from August 14 to 18. Dictyostelium has been extensively used as a model organism for the study of cell mechanics, motility, chemotaxis, cell division and other biological events that involve cell shape change and the mechanical behaviors of cells. In this coming meeting, there will be 70 oral presentations and 100 posters covering above topics.

http://dicty11.dictybase.org

We wrote a book chapter about the role of the actin cytoskeleton in mechanosensation. The book title is Mechanosensitivity and Mechanotransduction, edited by A, Kamkin and I. Kiseleva and published by Springer. It is an on-line book with free access (http://www.springerlink.com/content/m1154whn66469588/). Its official version will be available in this summer. For citation, please refer to " Luo T. and Robinson D. N. The role of the actin cytoskeleton in mechanosensation. Kamkin & Kiseleva eds, Mechanosensitivity in Cells and Tissues 4: Mechanosensitivity and Mechanotransduction, 2010; Springer-Verlag, New York.". 

Please visit www.jove.com

You'll find tons of video about biological experiments you might be interested in. It is very useful for most of mechanicians who lack this kind of knowledge and experience. Enjoy yourself!