Science and Society

Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa 1894-1984 – a great Soviet physicist, engineer, and experimenter, Nobel Prize laureate in physics, founder of the Institute of Physical Problems. P.L. Kapitsa combined the intuition and engineering feel of a physicist-experimenter, pragmatism and a businesslike approach of a science organizer, and independence of judgment in communication with the authorities. Preferring written discussions to oral ones, the scientist left us a vast legacy in the form of reports on various topics at scientific symposia and conferences, speeches at meetings of scientists, notes to those in power, and so on, some of which are published in this collection. It also includes "Maxims" - pithy sayings of the scientist that have become aphorisms, and unusual physics problems created by him.