topological insulators

There's some good stuff in yesterday's post asking what physics you'd like to read more about. I'm nursing a sore neck and shoulder, so I'll only do one or two quick ones today, starting with James D. Miller in the first comment: 1) Is it true that our understanding of quantum physics comes from studying systems with only a small number of particles and there is a good chance our theories won't hold in more complex systems. It all depends on how you define your terms-- what counts as a "small number" of particles, and what counts as not holding? It's certainly true that most of the…