I elaborate on a link between the string--scale breaking of supersymmetry that occurs in a class of superstring models and the onset of inflation. The link rests on spatially flat cosmologies supported by a scalar field driven by an exponential poten
tial. If, as in String Theory, this potential is steep enough, under some assumptions that are spelled out in the text the scalar can only climb up as it emerges from an initial singularity. In the presence of another mild exponential, slow--roll inflation is thus injected during the ensuing descent and definite imprints are left in the CMB power spectrum: the quadrupole is systematically reduced and, depending on the choice of two parameters, an oscillatory behavior can also emerge for low multipoles l < 50, in qualitative agreement with WMAP9 and PLANCK data. The experimentally favored value of the spectral index, n_s ~ 0.96, points to a potentially important role for the NS fivebrane, which is unstable in this class of models, in the Early Universe.
The simplest higher-spin interactions involve classical external currents and symmetric tensors $phi_{m_1 ... m_s}$, and convey three instructive lessons. The first is a general form of the van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov discontinuity in flat space for thi
s class of fields. The second is the rationale for its disappearance in (A)dS spaces. Finally, the third is a glimpse into an option which is commonly overlooked in Field Theory, and which both higher spins and String Theory are confronting us with: one can well allow in the Lagrangians non-local terms that do not spoil the local nature of physical quantities.
