Galaxies have a history. This has become clear from sky surveys, which have shown that distant galaxies, formed early in the life of the Universe, differ from the nearby ones. Observational windows at ultraviolet, infrared and millimetric wavelengths (provided by ROSAT, IRAM, IUE, IRAS, ISO) have revealed that galaxies contain a wealth of components: very hot gas, atomic hydrogen, molecules, dust, and dark matter. Three Euroconferences planned to punctuate advances in galactic research, brought together specialists in various fields of astronomy. The first, held in Granada, Spain in May 2000, addressed the observational clues. The second took place in October 2001 in St Denis de la Reunion, France) and reviewed the basic building blocks and small-scale processes in galaxy evolution. The third is scheduled to take place in July 2002 in Kiel, Germany and will be devoted to the overall modelling of galaxy evolution. This book contains the proceedings of the second conference.
