". . .we now understand that imperfection has exactly the opposite effect, namely to cause the perfection of the measurement---a dramatic reversal worthy of the finest Greek drama. The quantum hall effect is, in fact, a magnificent example of perfection emerging out of imperfection. The key clue that this is so is that the quantization accuracy---which is to say, the effect itself---disappears if the sample is small. Collective phenomena are both common in nature and central to modern physical science, so the effect is in this sense neither unprecendented nor hard to understand. However, extreme accuracy of the von Klitzing effect makes its collective nature undeniable, and therein lies its special significance.
     I have come to understand the von Klitzing discovery to be a watershed event, a defining moment in which physical science stepped firmly out of the age of reductionism into the age of emergence.
     The fractional quantum hall effect reveals that ostensibly indivisible quanta---in this case the electron charge e---can be broken into pieces through self-organization of phases. The fundamental things, in other words, are not necessarily fundamental."