DR. KAPITZA

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 126, 30 May 1935, Page 14

DR. KAPITZA

RETENTION IN RUSSIA

COMMANDEERED SERVICE

EUTHEBFOED UNEASY

(From "Th"s Post's" Representative.) LONDON, May 4.

Lord Rutherford has not resigned! himself to the loss of Professor Kapitza without a protest. The great physicist is perturbed and distressed by the sudden twist which the Soviet Government has given to the life of his young colleague and former protege. Kapitza, Lord Rutherford explained in an interview, if not a genius, had the brain of a physicist and the ability of a mechanician, a combination so rarely wedded in one brain that it made him something of a phenomenon. It was this two-sided ability which led to his creation of two most important pieces of apparatus in the Mond Laboratory—the first for the manufacture of liquid helium in large quantities, and the second a dynamo which could produce intense magnetic fields. Professor Kapitza, with these appliances completed, was on the point ol employing them in conjunction for a series of experiments which it was thought would lead to discoveries of the greatest importance. Because his work had reached this important stage Lord Rutherford is sure that Professor Kapitza is anxious to return. "I always realised," he said, "that the day would come sooner or later when Kapitza would feel that he could, and that he should, continue his work in his own country. He was a loyal citizen of' the Soviet. • But that does not.imply that he.-wanted to be uprooted in.,this way." In a letter to "The Times" Lord Rotherford writes:— "While no one disputes that the Soviet authorities have a legal claim upon Professor Kapitza's services, their sudden action in commandeering them ■without any previous warning has profoundly disturbed the University and the. scientific world. He was not even allowed to return to this country to discuss with the University authorities and the Royal Society arrangements for carrying on the work ,6f the laboratory of which he is director. ■It requires no imagination to realise how painful Professor Kapitza's own position is, for he was.on the eve of completing the experiments in Cambridge for which' he had so long prepared, and from which he had reason to expect so much new light on the properties of matter. Scientific men have watched with admiration the rapid advance of science in Russia, but even under ideal conditions it would require much tune to reconstruct in Russia the unique equipment specially, constructed by Professor Kapitza in Cambridge. SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL. "Science is- international, and every scientist hopes that it will long remain so, and the- facilities' granted to Professor Kapitza in this country are a good example of this fact. Apart from the personal factor, it may matter little in the long run whether the investigations which Kapitza had in view are ultimately made in Russia or hi this country, though it is important to avoid waste of tune and effort in duplicating costly apparatus which is already available and has taken so many years and so much planning to prepare. But the personal factor is a vital one in creative work. It is inevitable that Professor Kapitza has been greatly disturbed by this sudden frustration of his work and by the conflict of loyalties involved in the action of the Soviet Government, and reports frofn,'Russia^ make?it clear that his health has-Jieen seriously impaired by anxiety and N disappointment. Men of scientific originality and imagination like Kapitza require an atmosphere of complete mental tranquillity in which to do their creative work. It would be a great misfortune' in the interests of science in. the world at large if, through lack of sympathy or understanding, condition's ■ should arise which would inhibit Kapitza from giving his best to the world. A POSSIBLE TRAGEDY. "It is to be feared that while the Soviet Government has acted within its legal rights, and no doubt with the best of intentions, there has been a lack of appreciation of the effects of its sudden action. May we hope that the Soviet Government, which has given so many proofs of its interest in the development of science, will pursue a generous" and long-sighted policy, an^ will'see its way to meet the wishes of scientific men,"not only of this country, but .throughout the world, by enabling Kapltza to choose the environment in which he can most effectively utilise the special creative gifts with which he is endowed? It would be a tragedy if these gifts were rendered sterile: by failure to grasp the psychological situation." Professor Kapitza (writes the Moscow, correspondent of "The Observer") was appointed in October as head of the Physics Research Institute, a component, part of the All-Union Academy of Science? which was recently transferred from ilLeningrad to Moscow. Three and a half million roubles were recently provided' by the Government for. this institute to afford Professor Kapitza possibilities of research which are said to beJfar wider than those he enjoyed at Cambridge. '