Abstract
Some of the most important clues to the sequence of events which must have taken place as galaxies took up the forms they have today come from observations of the variation of the overall star formation rate in galaxies with cosmic epoch. This story is very closely related to studies of the rate at which the chemical elements were built up in the stars and in the interstellar media of galaxies — the chemical enrichment of the interstellar gas is associated with the formation of heavy elements in short-lived massive stars and their recirculation through the interstellar gas by supernova explosions. One of the most important developments in observational cosmology has been the realisation that star and element formation rates can be derived by a number of independent methods and these help constrain scenarios for the evolution of galaxies.
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