The fantastic reality that is modern physics is open for your exploration, guided by one of its primary architects and interpreters, Nobel Prize winner Frank Wilczek. Some jokes, some poems, and extracts from wife Betsy Devine's sparkling chronicle of what it's like to live through a Nobel Prize provide easy entertainment. There's also some history, some philosophy, some exposition of frontier science, and some frontier science, for your lasting edification. 49 pieces, including many from Wilczek's award-winning Reference Frame columns in Physics Today, and some never before published, are gathered by style and subject into a dozen chapters, each with a revealing, witty introduction. Profound ideas, presented with style: What could be better? Enjoy. Introduction v Constructing This World, and Others 1(34) 1. The World's Numerical Recipe 3(7) 2. Analysis and Synthesis 1: What Matters for Matter 10(6) 3. Analysis and Synthesis 2: Universal Characteristics 16(6) 4. Analysis and Synthesis 3: Cosmic Groundwork 22(6) 5. Analysis and Synthesis 4: Limits and Supplements 28(7) Musing on Mechanics 35(20) 6. Whence the Force of F = ma? 1: Culture Shock 37(6) 7. Whence the Force of F = ma? 2: Rationalization 43(6) 8. Whence the Force of F = ma? 3: Cultural Diversity 49(6) Making Light of Mass 55(26) 9. The Origin of Mass 57(15) 10. Mass without Mass 1: Most of Matter 72(4) 11. Mass without Mass 2: The Medium is the Mass-age 76(5) QCD Exposed 81(40) 12. QCD Made Simple 83(17) 13. 10¹² Degrees in the Shade 100(14) 14. Back to Basics at Ultrahigh Temperatures 114(7) Breathless at the Heights 121(16) 15. Scaling Mount Planck 1: A View from the Bottom 123(5) 16. Scaling Mount Planck 2: Base Camp 128(5) 17. Scaling Mount Planck 3: Is That All There Is? 133(4) At Sea in the Depths 137(18) 18. What is Quantum Theory? 140(4) 19. Total Relativity: Mach 2004 144(6) 20. Life's Parameters 150(5) Once and Future History 155(122) 21. The Dirac Equation 157(34) 22. Fermi and the Elucidation of Matter 191(20) 23. The Standard Model Transcended 211(5) 24. Masses and Molasses 216(7) 25. In Search of Symmetry Lost 223(27) 26. From 'Not Wrong' to (Maybe) Right 250(3) 27. Unification of Couplings 253(24) Methods of Our Madness 277(28) 28. The Social Benefit of High Energy Physics 279(6) 29. When Words Fail 285(3) 30. Why Are There Analogies between Condensed Matter and Particle Theory? 288(5) 31. The Persistence of Ether 293(5) 32. Reaching Bottom, Laying Foundations 298(7) Inspired, Irritated, inspired 305(26) 33. What Did Bohr Do? 307(7) 34. Dreams of a Final Theory 314(4) 35. Shadows of the Mind 318(5) 36. The Inflationary Universe 323(4) 37. Is the Sky Made from Pi? 327(4) Big ideas 331(54) 38. Quantum Field Theory 333(26) 39. Some Basic Aspects of Fractional Quantum Numbers 359(26) Grand Occasions 385(48) 40. From Concept to Reality to Vision 387(9) 41. Nobel Biography 396(4) 42. Asymptotic Freedom: From Paradox to Paradigm 400(30) 43. Advice to Students 430(3) Breaking into Verse 433(8) 44. Virtual Particles 435(1) 45. Gluon Rap 436(1) 46. Reply In Sonnet Form 437(1) 47. From Beneath An e-Avalanche 438(1) 48. Frog Sonnet 439(1) 49. Archaeopteryx 440(1) Another Dimension 441(1) Nobel Blog: A Year in the Life 442(77) Acknowledgments 519