Peter Kapitsa
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.031002
It’s the birthday of Peter Kapitsa, who was born in 1894 in Kronstadt, Russia. Kapitsa studied physics at the Petrograd Polytechnical Institute and then at Cambridge University, where he worked with Ernest Rutherford. His research focused at first on the influence of strong magnetic fields and then shifted to the influence of ultra-low temperatures. In 1934 Kapitsa visited the Soviet Union -- and was forbidden by Joseph Stalin to leave. He was able to continue his research, however. In 1937 he discovered the superfluid state of matter in helium-4: At a temperature of 2.17 K the liquid starts to form a component that has zero viscosity and zero entropy. Kapitsa was awarded the 1978 physics Nobel for his discovery.
Date in History: 8 July 1894
