Isotopes in the interstellar medium and circumstellar envelopes

Measurements of the present-day abundances of elements and isotopes, combined with model calculations, allow us to trace the history of nucleosynthesis in the universe. Throughout this review, emphasis will be placed on descriptions of the measurement processes and the interpretations needed to obtain actual isotope and element abundances from measurements. Comparisons of the abundances of isotopomers of a given element are less affected by systematic effects than are comparisons of the abundances of different elements. Thus ratios of isotopomers should be given a greater weight when data and models are compared.