  We summarize several aspects of recent work on quantum stress tensor
fluctuations and their role in driving fluctuations of the gravitational field.
The role of correlations and anticorrelations is emphasized. We begin with a
review of the properties of the stress tensor correlation function. We next
consider some illuminating examples of non-gravitational effects of stress
tensors fluctuations, specifically fluctuations of the Casimir force and
radiation pressure fluctuations. We next discuss passive fluctuations of
spacetime geometry and some of their operational signatures. These include
luminosity fluctuations, line broadening, and angular blurring of a source
viewed through a fluctuating gravitational field. Finally, we discuss the
possible role of quantum stress tensor fluctuations in the early universe,
especially in inflation. The fluctuations of the expansion of a congruence of
comoving geodesics grows during the inflationary era, due to non-cancellation
of anticorrelations that would have occurred in flat spacetime. This results in
subsequent non-Gaussian density perturbations and allows one to infer an upper
bound on the duration of inflation. This bound is consistent with adequate
inflation to solve the horizon and flatness problems.
