  Recent progress in the understanding of star formation is summarized. A
consistent picture is emerging where molecular clouds form with turbulent
velocity fields and clumpy substructure, imprinted already during their
formation. The clouds are initially supported by supersonic turbulence which
dissipates however within massive clumps on short timescales, of order their
local dynamical timescales. As a result, the clumps collapse and fragment into
stellar clusters. Subsequent energetic feedback processes by the newly formed
stars will change the thermal and kinematical state of the surrounding
molecular gas, triggering or suppressing star formation and leading eventually
to the disruption of the molecular clouds. More work is required to understand
these processes in greater details.

Astrophysics