  I review the current status of lattice Monte-Carlo computations of the
equation of state of QCD, our current understanding of the thermalization
process at collider energies, and two new theoretical developments, one
pertaining to the ab-initio calculation of the low-$x$ gluon structure of heavy
nuclei, the other to the chaotic behavior of QCD. At the end I give a brief
overview of the status of various quark-gluon plasma signatures.
