  Ideas from quantum field theory and topology have proved remarkably fertile
in suggesting new phenomena in the quantum physics of condensed matter. Here
I'll supply some broad, unifying context, both conceptual and historical, for
the abundance of results reported at the Nobel Symposium on "New Forms of
Matter, Topological Insulators and Superconductors". Since they distill some
most basic ideas in their simplest forms, these concluding remarks might also
serve, for non-specialists, as an introduction.
