This book is the result of a meeting held in August, 1986 in Irsee, West Germany. As the title suggests, the aim of the meeting was to discuss physical processes in interstellar clouds, determine the current status, aims and future direction of the research in this area. Interstellar clouds contain nearly all the mass of diffuse gas in our galaxy, some 10% of the total galactic mass. They represent the birth site for stars and the final "dumping ground" for matter ejected from stars (winds, ex plosive ejecta) and thus play an integral part in the galactic recycling of material. Not only are the clouds important for the structure and evolution of our galaxy, they are also interesting objects of study "per se." Because of their vast scales (up to about 100 parsec), extreme temperatures (as low as about lOOK), and long life 8 times (estimated a about 10 years) a number of physical and chemical processes occur in these environments, which we are not able to study elesewhere, certainly not in laboratories. It is for this reason that the meeting, and hence this book, was organized in such a way that firstly the latest observational results were sum m ized, going from the global, large scales, to finer details and dynamics, then progressing onwards to the processes -dynamical, chemical, electromagnetic, etc."

This book is the result of a meeting held in August, 1986 in Irsee, West Germany. As the title suggests, the aim of the meeting was to discuss physical processes in interstellar clouds, determine the current status, aims and future direction of the research in this area. Interstellar clouds contain nearly all the mass of diffuse gas in our galaxy, some 10% of the total galactic mass. They represent the birth site for stars and the final "dumping ground" for matter ejected from stars (winds, ex plosive ejecta) and thus play an integral part in the galactic recycling of material. Not only are the clouds important for the structure and evolution of our galaxy, they are also interesting objects of study "per se." Because of their vast scales (up to about 100 parsec), extreme temperatures (as low as about lOOK), and long life 8 times (estimated a about 10 years) a number of physical and chemical processes occur in these environments, which we are not able to study elesewhere, certainly not in laboratories. It is for this reason that the meeting, and hence this book, was organized in such a way that firstly the latest observational results were sum m ized, going from the global, large scales, to finer details and dynamics, then progressing onwards to the processes -dynamical, chemical, electromagnetic, etc."

While it would not be correct to say that Philo's works have been "lost"--scholars have always known and used Philo--they have essentially been "misplaced" as far as the average student of the Bible is concerned. Now the translation of the eminent classicist C. D. Yonge is available in an affordable, easy-to-read edition, with a new foreword and newly translated passages, and containing supposed fragments of Philo's writings from ancient authors such as John of Damascus. The title and arrangement of the writings have been standardized according to scholarly conventions.

A contemporary of Paul and Jesus, Philo Judaeus, of Alexandria, Egypt, is unquestionably among the most important writers for historians and students of Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity. Although Philo does not explicitly mention Jesus, or Paul, or any of the followers of Jesus, Philo lived in their world. It is from Philo, for example, that we learn about how, like the Gospel of John, Jews (and Greeks) in the Greco-Roman world spoke of the creative force of God as God's "Logos." Philo, too, employs interpretive strategies that parallel those of the author of Hebrews. Most scholars would agree that Philo and the author of Hebrews are drawing from the same, or at least similar, traditions of Hellenistic Judaism. With these kind of connections to the world of Judaism and early Christianity, Philo cannot be ignored.