Observations at wavelengths between 1.4 and 0.8 mm play a fundamental role in studying the dusty high redshift universe since the signal strength at these wavelengths is almost independent of the redshift. This allows us to study the evolution of galaxies equally well for look-back times when the universe was roughly half of its current age (z~1) back to times just a few hundred Myr after the big bang (z~8). Using continuum surveys from APEX and the South Pole Telescope in synergy with ALMA and NOEMA we investigate the formation of the first massive dust-enshrouded galaxies after the big bang, the formation of galaxy clusters as well as the build-up of the central stellar bulges of galaxies in the era of galaxy assembly and into the era of reionization.
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