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This introductory paper reviews some topics in relation with the physics of galaxies and outlines a personal selection of highlights and key-questions in the field. The paper discusses how the new generation of astronomical facilities allows to address these questions on the observational side. And last, some future ambitious observational projects are briefly introduced, which will revolutionize our understanding of galaxies.

We simulate the occurrence of star formation bursts, during the past 3×109 yr, superimposed on old populations, by combining visible and near-infrared integrated spectra of star clusters with those of red galaxy nuclei. We track the resultant spectral evolution of the composite object for burst to old population mass ratios of 10, 1, and 0.1%. If a star formation burst uses 10% of the galaxy mass, the underlying old population will be undetectable, at least by means of integrated spectra, during 5×107 yr. At intermediate ages, ~2×109 yr, the burst will still contribute around 20% of the total optical flux. For a 1% mass, the burst becomes barely visible at intermediate ages; and, finally, for an 0.1% mass, the burst will affect the galaxy spectrum during 2×107 yr only.

We analyze the emission component of galaxy nuclei at very low intensity levels (W(Ha)=2Å). This emission level is considerably lower than that of classical LINERS like NGC 1052. We have access to weaker emission lines by averaging spectra with similar line ratios for Ha [NII], and [SII]. From the resulting spectrum for very low level emission nuclei, the [SII] ??6717, 6731/[SIII] ??9069, 9532 line ratio criterion (Diazet al., 1985a) unambiguously shows that shock-wave heating is the mechanism responsible for the ionization in such objects.

We apply the MINOS optimization system to the population synthesis of galactic nuclei, using a grid of star cluster equivalent widths as a function of age and metallicity. For some classes of red galaxy nuclei, this observational approach to population synthesis produces results similar to those predicted by the theoretical approach of Arimoto and Yoshii (1987). The synthesis results for blue nuclei tend to scatter more in the age vs metallicity plane, probably because we use only visible and near-infrared spectral data. Additional information at shorter wavelengths will possibly produce better-focused solutions in the plane. However, strong bursts of star formation can easily be identified. We provide in this contribution population synthesis for the central regions of M31 and M32. The bulge and the semi-stellar nucleus of M31 are dominated by the old metal-rich population: the semi-stellar nucleus has reached up [Z/Z?]?0.6 and the bulge [Z/Z?]?0.3. In the central region of M32, a metallicity up to the solar value has been reached and the synthesis indicates that the intermediate age component is not dominant.

Near-infrared, adaptive optics observations of AGN achieve a spatial resolution comparable to that of the Hubble Space Telescope at visible and ultraviolet wavelengths. Using the ESO adaptive optics system, we have mapped the nuclear region of NGC 1068 in the near-infrared at 2.2, 3.5 and 4.8 µm. These data show the presence of strong near-infrared emission within the central 100 pc around the nucleus. At the K, L and M bands, the dominant emission peak is unresolved at resolutions of 35 pc (K), 15 pc (L) and 23 pc (M). We find that the emission peaks at 2.2, 3.5 and 4.8 µm are offset by 0.3±0.1" south of the HST optical continuum peak. The infrared peaks are coincident with the HST imaging polarimetry center thought to mark the hidden nucleus. We conclude that the infrared emission peaks are also directly related with the hidden nucleus and that they outline the dusty torus around the central engine, as expected from current AGN models. From our first estimate of the fluxes in L and M, we derive a dust temperature of 750 K for the unresolved component.