Pyotr Kapitsa was born in 1894 in Kronstadt, near Leningrad. He started his scientific career at the Petrograd Polytechnical Institute, where he proposed a method for determining "the magnetic moment of an atom interacting with an inhomogeneous magnetic field". In 1923 he went to Cambridge to work with Ernest Rutherford, using a magnetic field to observe alpha particles bending (Rutherford famously discovered the nucleus of an atom by shooting alpha particles at a gold sheet). While at Cambridge, Kapitsa discovered the linear dependence on resistivity on magnetic fields by different metals. He also began his work on low temperature physics, and developed an apparatus for the liquification of helium in 1934.
In 1934, Kapitsa returned to Moscow and created the Institute for Physical Problems where he researched strong magnetic fields, low temperature physics, now known as cryogenics. In his experiments on liquid helium, Kapitsa discovered that the helium was "superfluid", which is a state of matter where the liquid has no viscosity and thus can do some pretty amazing things.
Kapitsa, on top of his many contributions to science, also actively defended intellectual freedom. When he returned to Moscow in 1934, the Soviet Union forced him to stay and continue his work there. He refused to work until the government bought all his lab equipment from colleague Rutherford. In 1945, Kapitsa was appointed to a committee to construct a Soviet atomic bomb by the Politburo. Although forced to remain on the committee, he refused to work on the atomic bomb and fell out of favor with Stalin and the Soviet government. His scientific prestige kept him safe from too much retribution, and after Stalin died Kapitsa spent the rest of his career working out of a home laboratory.
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