The Non-Sleeping Universe: Proceedings of two conferences on: ‘Stars and the ISM’ held from 24–26 November 1997 and on: ‘From Galaxies to the Horizon’ held from 27–29 November, 1997 at the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto, Portugal

The "Non-Sleeping Universe" was a conference conceived to commemorate the opening of the new building of the Centro de Astroffsica da U niversidade do Porto (CAUP). It seemed appropriate to include the two major areas of work at CAUP: Stellar Astrophysics and Cosmology. For the organizers the most obvious threading line would be activity. Therefore the choice of the name and contents. The conference lasted for one week, the first three days dealing mainly with the non-sleeping stars, from Asteroseismology to Activity and Flows, involving both young stars and the interstellar medium. It included twenty five oral and thirty four poster presentations and involved 52 participants. The second part of the conference, covered another three days and ad­ dressed "non-sleepiness" at galactic scales and beyond. From gamma-ray bursts to the cosmic background radiation and cosmological models. It in­ cluded twenty three oral and sixteen poster presentations and involved 46 participants. Activity was also the environment dominant note. Only that this time of painters and builders rushing to finish the brand new building ... In any case it was a remarkable week with high level of excitement and interchange as expected from a Non-Sleeping Universe. Even if the Port wine in the cellars were the conference(s) dinner(s) took place seemed quite indifferent to all activity, dormant ( ... or not) in the amazingly large oak casks.