A Mind Over Matter

Book excerpt: A Mind Over Matter is a biography of the Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist, Philip W. Anderson. Anderson is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential physicists of the second half of the twentieth century. Unlike the physicists who appear on television or write popular books, Anderson studied the physics of the very many, i.e., the science of how vast numbers of atoms conspire together to create everything from liquid water to sparkling diamonds, and from semiconductors (essential for cell phones and computers) to superconductors (essential for MRI machines). More than any other single person, Anderson transformed the patchwork field of solid-state physics into the intellectually coherent discipline now called condensed matter physics. He developed important concepts that transcended physics, and influenced the scientifically literate public through his essays and articles. Book jacket.