Description
The cosmic microwave background provides a unique view of the beginning of the Universe, some 380,000 years after the Big Bang. I will review the successive improvements in studies of the tiny fluctuations that trace the seeds of structure, and how they have led to the emergent field of precision cosmology. The next decades are likely to lead to a transformative period in our pursuit of the frontiers of cosmology and the CMB will play a key role in this challenging future.
