Globular clusters (GCs) are among the oldest luminous sources in the universe, bearing witness to the earliest stages of galaxy formation as well as their evolution to the present day. While GCs have played a pivotal role in our understanding of the assembly of galaxies, their full potential remains unfulfilled due to our lack of understanding of how they form. One of the largest stumbling blocks has been the anomalous chemistry (both metallicity distributions and abundance patterns) of GCs relative to field stars within a galaxy. I will provide an introduction on the formation of globular clusters, how they relate to their host galaxies, and what is known about the "multiple stellar populations" (i.e. anomalous chemical abundances) within them. I will then review the main scenarios in the literature for the origin of these anomalies, and show their limitations. I will finish by suggesting a new scenario, based on what is seen in globular clusters that are forming in the local Universe.
(host: A. Adamo)
