The dawn of x-ray astronomy / by Riccardo Giacconi --; The second stars / by Falk Herwig --; Cosmological structures behind the Milky Way / by Renée Kraan-Korteweg --; New cosmology with clusters of galaxies / by Peter Schuecker --; The evolution of field spiral galaxies over the past 8 gyrs / by Asmus Böhm and Bodo L. Ziegler --; Galaxy collisions, gas striping and star formation in the evolution of galaxies / by Jan Palouš --; Star formation in merging galaxy clusters / by Chiara Ferrari --; Continuous star formation in blue compact dwarf galaxies / by Simone Recchi and Gerhard Hensler --; The proper motion and geometric distance of M33 / by Andreas Brunthaler --; NIR observations of the galactic center / by R. Schödel, A. Eckart, C. Straubmeier and J.-U. Pott --; Structures in the interstellar medium / by Soña Ehlerová --; Origins of brown dwarfs / by Viki Joergens --; Index of contributors --; General table of contents --; General index of contributors.