                          Pyotr Kapitsa

     P. Kapita, 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 W.W.II 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.

