  Our entire galaxy, like all others, originated as a fairly smooth patch of
binding energy, which in turn originated as a single quantum perturbation of
the inflaton field on a subatomic scale during inflation. The best preserved
relic of these perturbations is the anisotropy of the microwave background
radiation, which on the largest scales preserves a faithful image of the
primordial quantum fields. It is possible that close study of these
perturbations might reveal signs of discreteness caused by spacetime
quantization.
