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Article Contents

ABSTRACT

1.INTRODUCTION

1.1.Some Basic Concepts

2.DAMPED Lyman Alpha SYSTEMS

2.1.What Are They?

2.2.Why Do We Care?

2.3.The Metallicity of DLAs

2.4.Element Ratios

3.THE LYMAN ALPHA FOREST

3.1.Metals in the Ly Alpha Forest

3.2.C IV at the Highest Redshifts

4.LYMAN BREAK GALAXIES

4.1.Stellar Populations and the Initial Mass Function

4.2.Element Abundances in the Interstellar Gas

4.3.The Oxygen Abundance in H II Regions

4.4.Dating the Star Formation Activity

4.5.Galactic-Scale Outflows

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

5.1.A Global View of Metal Enrichment in the Universe Two Billion Years after the Big Bang

5.2.Missing Metals?

REFERENCES