A review of cosmic evolution

Current theoretical models of cosmological evolution and the observational data constraining them are briefly surveyed. Sections are devoted to the hot big bang model (with reference to COBE data on the blackbody spectrum of the microwave background radiation), the origin of structure in the universe, the evolution of discrete sources, the evolution of the radio source population, the stellar populations of distant radio galaxies, and searches for young galaxies. The importance of IR, mm, and submm observations for astrophysical cosmology is stressed. (D.G.)