[en] These last two years have again seen an increase in activity centered on the magnetic monopole concept. It has been motivated by the growing confidence in Grand Unified Theories, GUTs, and encouraged by a Stanford experiment reporting a single, uncorroborated monopole candidate event. The non-agelian gauge ideas of t Hooft and Polyakov now provide monopoles a secure home. It is the variety and behavior of monopoles in these theories which have recently attracted so much attention. With the realization that the GUT monopole would be a layered object, increasing in unification with decreasing radius, several exotic prospects for these monopoles came under discussion - baryon catalysis and monopolium. In the first interaction, a monopole which has wandered through matter, invaded a nucleus, and enveloped a proton in its electro-weak unification region, may induce proton decay. Moving on, after a suitable recovery period, it can perform the same function on its next such encounter. Although the theory of this process is still far from agreed upon, some observational evidence from neutron star x-rays places severe limits on the abundance of free monopoles, the strength of the catalysis process, or both