According to this latest theory the Big Bang is just an illusion-http://www.nature.com/news/did-a-hyper-black-hole-spawn-the-universe-1.13743-It's the result of a collapsing 4-dimensional star! -I suppose this is analogous to a sphere intersecting a plane and appearing to be a point expanding into a circle. Shades of Abbott's Flatland!-This gets rid of the need for inflation, which seems good to me, but on the other hand introduces an even more improbable scenario. First indications are it needs further refinement.