On a very large scale the universe looks
homogeneous - the same in all directions.
And, this means that in an earlier stages of
the universes evolution
uh... that everything must have been
in contact. These regions must have been in
contact, so as to share information and
create a homogeneous universe.
This is what the theory of
inflation gives you.
It is an accelerated phase of 
expansion when the
universe was less than one second old.
And it explains why the
the universe is so homogeneous today.
But, even more importantly, it also explains
that there were some very small
fluctuations - quantum fluctuations.  
These very small initial fluctuations 
in density that later on
uh... grew, and under gravitation action 
became denser and denser and formed
galaxies and the other structures 
we observed.  We are very excited about
learning about this very early phase
of the universe.
Because, not only can it
tell us about the universe today, but 
it can also tell us about 
particle physics
and extensions to the standard model
since it happened at such high energies.
And that's why we're very exciting about learning it.
