Recent measurements of the “three degrees” cosmic background radiation have led to claims that they reveal the presence of ripples imprinted on the fabric of space at the birth of the Universe, more than 13 billion years ago. This naturally produced a flurry of media attention and widespread interest; but it also caused a lot of confusion. The confusion concerns the relationship between the Big Bang, the era of inflation (which, crucially,precededthe Big Bang) and the significance of these ideas for our understanding of the birth of our Universe, and others. My aim here is to resolve that confusion, and bring the story up to date. So I begin, not quite at the beginning, but with the Big Bang itself.