The phrase "encyclopedic memory" had a lot more resonance when people used it to describe Jim Anderson, who was thoroughly acquainted with volumes A to Z. "He grew up in a tiny house, the kind they live in in Kansas, with one little bathroom for the family, and he would go in there and read the encyclopedia," said his wife, Thomasine Berg. At Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, his research delved into areas such as air traffic control, speech-recognition devices, and developing ways to make computers talk.