This concise review of the leading research issues confronting emergency and military medicine today presents the latest thinking about the molecular and cellular mechanisms of trauma that lead to tissue damage, and then describes cutting-edge research aimed at understanding and reversing the consequent damage to major organs. The clinical conditions covered include hemorrhagic shock and resuscitation, ischemia-reperfusion injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome, thermal injury, inhalation injury, and traumatic brain injury. The authors discuss the natures of their pathologies, current research and emerging treatments, as well as red blood cell storage and bioterrorism involving anthrax, smallpox, plague, and other infectious and toxic agents.