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boldNamed a Top Five Book of 2012 by Physics Today, USA/bold.br/br/Philip Anderson was educated at University High School in Urbana, Illinois, at Harvard (BS 1943, PhD 1949), and further educated at Bell Laboratories, where his career (1949-1984) coincided with the greatest period of that remarkable institution. Starting in 1967, he shared his time with Cambridge University (until 1975) and then with Princeton, where he continued full time as Joseph Henry Professor until 1997. As an emeritus he remains active in research, and at press time he was involved in several scientific controversies about high profile subjects, in which his point of view, though unpopular at the moment, is likely to prevail eventually. His colleagues have made him one of the two physicists most often cited in the scientific literature, for several decades.br/br/His work is characterized by mathematical simplicity combined with conceptual depth, and by profound respect for experimental findings. He has explored areas outside his main discipline, the quantum theory of condensed matter (for which he won the 1977 Nobel Prize), on several occasions: his paper on what is now called the “Anderson-Higgs mechanism” was a main source for Peter Higgs' elucidation of the boson; a crucial insight led to work on the dynamics of neutron stars (pulsars); and his concept of the spin glass led far afield, to developments in practical computer algorithms and neural nets, and eventually to his involvement in the early years of the Santa Fe Institute and his co-leadership with Kenneth Arrow of two influential workshops on economics at that institution. His writing career started with a much-quoted article in Science titled “More is Different” in 1971; he was an occasional columnist for Physics Today in the 1980s and 1990s. He was more recently a reviewer of science and science-related books for the Times (London) Higher Education Supplement as well as an occasional contributor to Science, Nature, and other journals.br/br/boldSample Chapter(s)/boldbr/Chapter 1: Personal Reminiscences (3,554 KB)br/br/boldContents:/boldbulletlistbulletboldPersonal Reminiscences:/boldbulletlistbulletIntroduction/bulletbullet“BCS” and Me/bulletbulletA Mile of Dirty Lead Wire: A Fable for the Scientifically Literate/bulletbulletScientific and Personal Reminiscences of Ryogo Kubo/bullet/bulletlist/bulletbulletboldHistory:/boldbulletlistbulletIntroduction/bulletbulletPhysics at Bell Labs, 1949–1984: Young Turks and Younger Turks/bulletbulletIt's Not Over Till the Fat Lady Sings/bulletbulletReflections on Twentieth Century Physics: Historical Overview of the 20th Century in Physics/bulletbullet21st Century Physics/bulletbulletY Nambu and Broken Symmetry/bulletbulletNevill Mott, John Slater, and the “Magnetic State”: Winning the Prize and Losing the PR Battle/bullet/bulletlist/bulletbulletboldPhilosophy and Sociology:/boldbulletlistbulletIntroduction/bulletbulletEmergence vs Reductionism/bulletbulletIs the Theory of Everything the Theory of Anything?/bulletbulletIs Measurement Itself an Emergent Property?/bulletbulletGood News and Bad News/bulletbulletThe Future Lies Ahead/bulletbulletCould Modern America Have Invented Wave Mechanics?/bulletbulletLoose Ends and Gordian Knots of the String Cult/bulletbulletImaginary Friend, Who Art in Heaven/bullet/bulletlist/bulletbulletboldScience Tactics and Strategy:/boldbulletlistbulletIntroduction/bulletbulletSolid State Experimentalists: Theory Should be on Tap, Not on Top/bulletbulletShadows of Doubt/bulletbulletThe Reverend Thomas Bayes, Needles in Haystacks, and the Fifth Force/bulletbulletEmerging Physics/bulletbulletOn the Nature of Physical Laws/bulletbulletOn the “Unreasonable Efficacy of Mathematics” — A Proposition by Wigner/bulletbulletWhen Scientists Go Astray/bulletbulletFurther Investigations/bullet/bulletlist/bulletbulletboldGenius:/boldbulletlistbulletIntroduction/bulletbulletWh