P. Kapitsa, an outstanding Soviet physicist, was born in
Kronstadt in the family of a general in 1894. He graduated from the
Petrograd Polytechnic Institute in 1919. Kapitsa took a great interest
in physics while still at the institute.
In 1921 Kapitsa was sent to England on Lenin's instructions to
renew scientific contacts. He worked in the famous Cavendish
Laboratory headed by Rutherford. Kapitsa was elected a member of the
Royal Sociaty for his outstanding scientific work in the
production of large magnetic fields.
In the middle of 1930s he organized the Institute of Physical
Problems near Moscow. It was here that Kapitsa concetrated his
attention on the research of superlow temperatures of liquid
helium and superconductivity. He showed that helium conducted heat so
well becouse it flowed with remarkable ease.
After the WW2 his scientific activity was directed to space
research. In 1950s Kapitsa also turned his attention to ball lightning –
a phenomenon in which plasma exists for a much longer period than it
was supposed.
Kapitsa was awarded a Nobel Prize for his great contribution to
world science in 1978. Today there are few names in the history of
phisics that can be placed next to his.
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