  This contribution summarizes some recent work on gravitational-wave astronomy
and, especially, on the generation and detection of relic gravitational waves.
We begin with a brief discussion of astrophysical sources of gravitational
waves that are likely to be detected first by the coming in operation laser
interferometers, such as GEO, LIGO, VIRGO. Then, we proceed to relic
gravitational waves emphasizing their quantum-mechanical origin and the
inevitability of their existence. Combining the theory with available
observations, we discuss the prospects of direct detection of relic
gravitational waves. A considerable part of the paper is devoted to comparison
of relic gravitational waves with the density perturbations of
quantum-mechanical origin. It is shown how the phenomenon of squeezing of
quantum-mechanically generated cosmological perturbations manifests itself in
the periodic structures of the metric power spectra and in the oscillatory
behaviour of the CMBR multipoles $C_l$ as a function of $l$. The cosmological
importance of the theoretically calculated (statistical) dipole moment $C_1$ is
stressed. The paper contains also some comments on the damage to
gravitational-wave research inflicted by the "standard inflationary result". We
conclude with the (now common) remarks on the great scientific importance of
the continuing effort to observe relic gravitational waves, directly or
indirectly.
