DUSTY PLASMAS IN INTERSTELLAR CLOUDS AND STAR-FORMING REGIONS

We provide an introduction to self-consistent theoretical models of in terstellar dynamics in which dust is treated on a footing equal to tha t adopted for the description of the gaseous components of the media. Simple background material on the natures of interstellar clouds, dust , and star forming regions is given in the hopes that this review will be accessible to scientists and students interested in a broad range of nonastronomical dusty plasmas as well as to astrophysicists. The ma in emphasis is on the effects of dust on the damping of waves in cloud s, on ambipolar diffusion in star formation, and on the structures of shocks driven into the interstellar clouds by the winds from recently formed stars.