Dusty starbursts were more numerous around z~1 than today and appear to be
responsible for the majority of cosmic star formation over the Hubble time. We
suggest that they represent a common phase within galaxies in general which is
triggered by the growth of cosmic structure. We discuss the origin of the
luminosity of luminous infrared galaxies at z~1. Are these galaxies dominated
by star formation or nuclear activity ? What is triggering their strong
activity ? Is it triggered by external interactions or did it happen naturally
within isolated galaxies ? We present HST-ACS high resolution optical images of
luminous infrared galaxies at z~0.7 showing the evolution of the morphology of
these galaxies as a function of infrared luminosity, or star formation rate,
and discuss the effect of the environment on their activity.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Proceeding of the "Multi-Wavelength
Cosmology" Conference held in Mykonos, Greece, June 2003, ed.M. Plionis
(Kluwer