  I present an analysis of the JWST NIRSpec data of SMACS 0723 released as
Early Release Observations. As part of this three new redshifts are provided,
bringing the total of reliable redshifts to 14. I propose a modification to the
direct abundance determination method that reduces sensitivity to flux
calibration uncertainties by a factor of ~3 and show that the resulting
abundances are in good agreement with Bayesian photoionization models of the
rest-frame optical spectrum. I also show that 6355 is most likely a narrow-line
active galactic nucleus (AGN) with $M_* \sim 10^9$ Msun at z=7.66, and argue
that 10612 might also have an AGN contribution to its flux through comparison
to photoionization models and low-redshift analogues. Under the assumption that
the lines come from star-formation I find that the galaxies have gas depletion
times of ~$10^7$ years, comparable to similar galaxies locally. I also identify
a population of possibly shock-dominated galaxies at z<3 whose near-IR emission
lines plausibly come nearly all from shocks and discuss their implications. I
close with a discussion of the potential for biases in the determination of the
mass-metallicity relation using samples defined by detected [O III]4363 and
show using low-z galaxies that this can lead to biases of up to 0.5 dex with a
systematic trend with mass.
