Pyotr Kapitsa P. Kapita, an outstanding Soviet physicist, was born inKronstadtin the family of a general in 1894. He graduated fromthePetrograd Polytechnic Institute in 1919. Kapitsa took a greatinterestin physics while still at the institute. In 1921 Kapitsa was sent to Englandon Lenin s instructionsto renewscientific contacts. He worked in the famous CavendishLaboratoryheaded by Rutherford.Kapitsa was elected a member oftheRoyal Sociaty for his outstanding scientific work in theproductionof large magnetic fields.
In the middle of 1930s he organized theInstitute of PhysicalProblemsnear Moscow. It was here that Kapitsa concetrated hisattentionon the research of superlow temperatures of liquidheliumand superconductivity. He showed that helium conducted heatso wellbecouse it flowed with remarkable ease. After the W.W.II his scientific activity was directed tospaceresearch.In 1950s Kapitsa also turned his attention to balllightning- a phenomenon in which plasma exists for a much longerperiodthan it was supposed.
Kapitsa was awarded a Nobel Prize forhis great contributiontoworld science in 1978. Today there are few names in the historyofphisics that can be placed next to his.