Obviously incredible leading kapitsa. How and why Posner and Ernst destroyed the Kapitsa transmission

– The number of universities is growing, but the quality of education on average is falling. We have many so-called universities that are not really universities at all. Some pedagogical institute, which deserves rather the status of a school, suddenly calls itself a university. After the war, three high-level institutions were created - MIPT, MEPhI and MGIMO. They responded to the needs of the time. Now I don’t see any new educational institutions that would meet the new needs of the country - with the exception of the Higher School of Economics.

Just to list all the achievements, titles and regalia of Professor, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, member of the European Academy, President of the Eurasian Physical Society Sergei Kapitsa, will require several pages. But most TV viewers know him as the host of a program with more than 30 years of history - “Obvious-Incredible”, the fate of which is very difficult. Since it does not fit into the context of today’s TV, the program wanders from channel to channel: now “Obvious-Incredible” is broadcast on the Rossiya TV channel.

The public is stupid, but not that much
– Sergei Petrovich, about a year and a half ago, your program was once again closed: the channel’s management motivated this by the fact that Sergei Kapitsa chooses topics that are interesting only to him.
– It seems to me that this is a rather primitive point of view; after all, quite a large number of spectators watched and are watching us. And a few years before that, “Obvious - Incredible” was closed on another channel, since the then television management gave way to all sorts of witches and sorcerers. They also began to demand mysticism from me, stories about so-called paranormal phenomena. But a fairy tale, a legend, is a certain stage of development, like the childhood of science, since ancient man called something a miracle that he could not explain. A child needs fairy tales, but it seems to me that many adults have never left childhood. We ourselves have brought society to this state. Why this is so, we must ask television executives. Television is mainly subordinated to the basest interests. A striking example is the programs “Dom” and “Dom-2”. Interest in such shows and their high ratings characterize the collapse of society's consciousness. They say that if you want to deprive a person of the opportunity to exist, you must deprive him of his mind. Likewise, our television is depriving the country of reason.

– Maybe the fact is that the audience itself is more interested in mysticism, riddles and secrets than real science?
- I don’t agree. The public is a fool, as Stanislavsky said, but not to the same degree. She, of course, was accustomed to complete idiocy, so ask not me, but the television executives.

– Sometimes it seems that the state has turned its back on science.
– It’s difficult to answer unequivocally; this is a very difficult set of problems. We had already passed through a deep hole and now began to slowly climb up. But the situation is still very serious, and the most significant crisis we are experiencing is related to the lack of young people capable of taking leadership positions in science. A young man who has received a higher education from us, a PhD, is almost never able to realize his talent in the country, so he either goes into business or goes to the West. My grandson graduated from the Faculty of Cybernetics of Moscow State University, his diploma was the third in the course. He was offered to continue his studies in graduate school and was awarded a scholarship of one and a half thousand rubles. What should he do now? How can he feed his family with that kind of money? By the way, my friend’s grandson, who had just graduated from the Chemistry Department of Moscow State University, was offered a $1,500 graduate student scholarship at Columbia University in New York. Lenin at one time kicked out 100 philosophers who did not suit him, and we, in fact, kicked out tens of thousands of mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and biologists who were very necessary for society. Yuri Luzhkov and Viktor Sadovnichy (Rector of Moscow State University - A.S.) managed to promote a project that would double the area of ​​Moscow University. On the one hand, this is good, but it is much more difficult to answer the question, who will teach there?

Stalin ordered his father to work here
– Maybe this is a matter of some kind of systemic crisis, since science in Soviet times was “sharpened” to serve the military-industrial complex, which is now not in demand on the same scale as before.
– No, not all science was related to the military-industrial complex. For example, only half of Phystech graduates worked in the defense industry. Such simplistic estimates are now often made, but they are usually incorrect. For example, only half of the aviation industry was military, and the other half was civilian. Now there is practically no civilian life. Over the past 15 years, we have produced 35 civil aircraft, previously we produced 300 per year.

– How to get out of this vicious circle?
– This is a question of political strategy. We have various national programs that mobilize funds, public attention, and give political impetus. But the only area in which there is no such program yet is science. And without science the country has no future.

– But scientific discoveries are now being made in Russia too. Last spring, mathematician Grigory Perelman proved the famous Poincaré conjecture, and then refused the most prestigious prize in the field of mathematics - the Fields medal.
– This is more of a private episode. And it did not arise out of nowhere, but because there was such a wonderful mathematical environment in St. Petersburg and Moscow, from which scientists of this level grew. I believe that, first of all, it is necessary to give young scientists the opportunity to settle in Russia. When my father came to Russia from Cambridge for a while in 1934, Stalin said: “You now have to work here.” And my father was not allowed back to England. The father replied: “Then the same conditions must be created.” After which his laboratory was bought from the British for 50 thousand pounds (five million dollars at the current exchange rate). Then an institute was built with modern equipment by those standards.

– In recent years, we have had quite a few different universities and academies. Don't they create a similar favorable scientific environment?
– The number of universities is growing, but the quality of education on average is falling. We have many so-called universities that are not really universities at all. Some pedagogical institute, which deserves rather the status of a school, suddenly calls itself a university. After the war, three high-level institutions were created - MIPT, MEPhI and MGIMO. They responded to the needs of the time. Now I don’t see any new educational institutions that would meet the new needs of the country - with the exception of the Higher School of Economics.

AIDS will be treated
– Nowadays there is a lot of talk about the problem of cloning. Don’t you think that experiments with cloning and the creation of a genetically modified person are beyond the bounds of morality?
– In the 20s of the last century, when they realized that there were different blood groups with certain laws of their compatibility and eventually learned how to transfuse blood, many thought that this was unacceptable: “Well, of course, someone else’s blood will flow in my veins.” ". The transfusion of blood, which is widely believed to contain the soul, has been subject to public condemnation. Now no one, except extreme religious sects, objects to blood transfusions. This is being done everywhere, thanks to which a colossal number of people have been saved. We are not talking about a genetic person yet. After all, cloning itself is still technically imperfect; we do not fully understand the details of this process, although we have carried it out on mice and sheep. Science still has a lot to learn about the very complex process of controlling embryonic development. And the moral problems that arise need to be discussed in order to prepare people for them, and not to intimidate them with various horror stories.

– How far is it until we create cures for cancer and AIDS?
– Science is moving towards this. Cancer is a very complex disease. But its nature is now clearer to us than before. It is already known that the disease is associated with certain features of cell development and the processes that control this development. The study of the nature of heredity brings us closer and closer to understanding this problem. As for AIDS, I think that in the coming decades ways will be found to combat this terrible disease, just as in the twentieth century they learned to treat smallpox, diphtheria and a large number of other diseases.

– On the other hand, the development of science and technology gives rise to a lot of problems. It is no coincidence that the 20th century went down in history primarily as a time of man-made disasters that continue to this day. This begs the question: are discoveries needed that humanity cannot then cope with?
– Man-made disasters existed before the 20th century, only before there were much fewer people, and accordingly there were fewer opportunities for accidents and explosions. Today, a much larger number of machines and all kinds of devices operate every day, so these days there are probably ten times more opportunities for accidents than even fifty years ago. Therefore, it only seems to us that the number of these disasters is increasing; in fact, the intensity of life is increasing.

In Japan everything is the same, but they live longer
– In recent years, you have been studying the humanities—demography, not physics.
“I had previously worked on accelerators, and we created a machine that had two important practical applications. It allowed nuclear reactor vessels to be illuminated and was also used to treat cancer. We made six of these machines that are still working today. The first one was installed at the Herzen Institute, and over 20 years, more than 18 thousand patients were cured with its help. There was talk of starting mass production, but at that moment everything collapsed, and only now is this process being resumed with great difficulty. We are told that we must establish production, we search and humbly ask for money, and when we find it, the government says: prove that it is necessary. In the early 90s, I was forced to leave for England, where, with the support of the English Royal Society, I took up problems of population dynamics. Living there with his wife is quite modest according to their standards, although, of course, it is more comfortable than back then in Russia. As a result of these studies, I discovered that much of what is happening now can be understood through the dynamics of the demographic development of the world's population. The main feature of the current moment is that humanity is at the very peak of the demographic transition from the unbridled growth that occurred before to saturation.
Our leadership is increasingly talking about demographic problems in Russia, but in all developed countries the situation is no better or worse. They just live there much longer. So, men in Japan outlive ours by 20 years. But the birth rate is declining everywhere. In Spain, the number of children per woman today is 1.2, in Germany – 1.41, in Japan – 1.37, among Italians, despite the prayers of the Pope – 1.12, here – 1.3, in Ukraine – 1.09, while for simple reproduction you need an average of at least 2.15 children. When growth stabilizes, the world's population will be twice as large as it is now, i.e. 10–12 billion. Humanity will reach this level in approximately 100 years.

– It’s strange, there are no world wars, diseases are getting better and better treated. Humanity now lives, in essence, in hothouse conditions, and the birth rate is falling.
– It is important to understand that it is not a matter of resources, and the fact that we pay women 250 thousand per child will not change the situation significantly. And this is not a purely Russian question, but a value crisis of the entire modern civilization. When society becomes civilized, other values ​​arise - work, career. Instead of getting married, building a family, having children, people get diplomas, academic degrees. And here is the result.

On February 14, 1928, the son of Nobel Prize winner Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was born, Sergei Petrovich Kapitsa, a Soviet and Russian physicist, educator, and TV presenter, who since 1973 has continuously hosted the popular science television program “Obvious - Incredible.” Today we illustrate the biography of the scientist in our classic photo selection.

Baby Sergei Petrovich with his mother

Sergei Kapitsa was born in Cambridge and lived in the UK until he was seven years old. “Our house remains there to this day, it’s called Kapitsa House,” says Sergei Petrovich.

In 1935, the Kapitsa family returned to the USSR.

After moving to the USSR, Sergei Petrovich lived in Moscow, where he graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1949. He began his scientific activity in the same year.

In 1957, S.P. Kapitsa began scuba diving. In those days, scuba diving was not practiced in the USSR. Kapitsa was one of the first scuba divers. And in this area he managed to make a good career - he became Deputy Chairman of the USSR Underwater Sports Federation.

Sergei Petrovich with his parents and wife Tatyana Damir in Czechoslovakia

Since 1956, Sergei Kapitsa taught at MIPT, in 1961 he became a Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, and 4 years later he received the title of professor at the same institute.

Sergei Petrovich Kapitsa at a meeting of the General Physics Department at MIPT

The son of the great academician was invited to head the department in 1965.

The Kapits family.

Sergei Kapitsa answers the question “Is there a God?”

Sergei Petrovich holds a photo of the whole family

Sergei Petrovich with grandchildren

In December 1986, Sergei Kapitsa suffered a failed assassination attempt by a “madman from Leningrad” ( restorer, memberSociety "Memory"), as a result of which he was injured. The attacker entered the academic building of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, where S.P. Kapitsa was giving lectures on general physics, and during a break in the lecture, when Sergei Petrovich was leaving the audience, he hit him twice on the head with a tourist hatchet from behind. Kapitsa managed to snatch the ax from the attacker’s hands and hit him in the forehead with the butt of the ax. Then the bloodied Kapitsa with an ax reached the pulpit, asked to call an ambulance and the police, after which he lost consciousness. The attacker was detained, and Sergei Kapitsa was hospitalized in the neurosurgical department of the S.P. Botkin City Clinical Hospital. He received 17 stitches. He was subsequently able to return to work. After this assassination attempt, MIPT introduced emergency security measures, which were partially lifted six months later.

Since March 2000, he has been the president of the Nikitsky Club, and since 2006 he has been the president of the World of Knowledge film festival.

Sergei Petrovich died in Moscow on August 14, 2012. The farewell took place on August 17 at the Moscow State University House of Culture, and on the same day he was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery, next to his father’s grave.

On February 14, 2013, on the day of Sergei Kapitsa’s 85th birthday, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the building of the Russian New University.

Family

physicist-academician Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa.

Sergei's mother was one of those women who spent her entire life

dedicated to children: she was busy around the house from morning to evening, trying

provide comfort for her husband and two sons. And Sergei Kapitsa himself, and

Brother Andrey, without a doubt, took after his father - both were drawn to knowledge

yam and both achieved great things in the future. Despite the fact that early

Years

Sergei passed through Cambridge, his school childhood was the same,

How

and among all Soviet children of that time, Sergei’s family returned to

USSR, when the boy was 7 years old, and when he turned twelfth

Year,

The Great Patriotic War began. Sergei's relatives and friends are not

suffered, but this difficult time still took its toll

Imprint

On his character and thinking.

After school, Sergei entered the Aviation Institute, barely

Having finished

became seriously involved in scientific activities - he studied supersonic

aerodynamics, applied electrodynamics, terrestrial

Kapitsa became a Doctor of Science, and at 37 - a professor of physics -

mathematical sciences. Sergei Kapitsa wrote 4 monographs and

several dozen articles. He has 14 inventions and 1

scientific discovery.

When Sergei Kapitsa was 45 years old, he created the book “Lifenaw

And it was this publication that became the root cause of the appearance of the program

"The obvious is the incredible." In the same 1973, when it appeared

The book came out for the first time and the show. For Sergei, she became not only

the most important milestone in life, but also the phenomenon that shaped him

Scientific destiny. In 1980, Kapitsa received the State

USSR for the foundation of the program “Obvious - Incredible”. He also

became the recipient of the RAS prize “for the popularization of science” and the

Government of the Russian Federation for services in the field of education. Despite

Great achievements in the field of science, many years of experience

Teaching, a number of scientific titles and awards, Sergei

Petrovich

He was never accepted into the Russian Academy of Sciences. Home

"behind the scenes"

The reason was precisely television, which, according to scientific

community of the USSR could not possibly be more important for a scientist than

Main

Job. Kapitsa was made quite clear that he should choose

Either the transfer or the place

In Academy. Sergei chose the program, which he never regretted.

Kapitsa: Television is the strongest means of interaction

People are now located

in the hands of those who are completely irresponsible with their

Roles in society. Even in

The difficult 90s, when the program “Obvious -

Incredible" threat looms

Closings, Kapitsa did not change his principle - to tell

Not only people

Fascinating, but also educational. At that time, scientific broadcasts

Primitive stamps

With which Pinocchio thought. A little more complicated - this is for broadcast

Alien." Personal life

Sergey Kapitsa / Sergey Kapitsa With his future wife Tatyana

Damir Sergey could

met in elementary school, where they studied in

Parallel classes, but then

It never occurred to little Seryozha to pay attention to

A quiet girl, by the way

To say, she is also the daughter of a learned man (Tanya’s father was famous

Professor of Medicine). A

So she remembered him. And how was it possible not to remember the boy,

Who came from England? But

Fate truly brought them together only when Sergei turned

20 years. Within a year

After they met, they got married, and a year later theirs was born.

The first son is Fedor. Total

Sergei Kapitsa had three children - besides the first boy, his wife

Gave him two daughters

Masha and Varya. Sergei Petrovich Kapitsa lived for 84 years and died in 2012 in Moscow. WITH ergei Kapitsa - Russian and Soviet scientist, TV presenter, editor-in-chief of the magazine “In the World of Science”, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, professor, chief researcher at the Institute of Physical Problems named after. P.L. Kapitsa.

Sergei Petrovich Kapitsa belongs to a dynasty of Russian scientists who have made a huge contribution to the development of domestic and world science. His grandfather, Academician Alexey Nikolaevich Krylov, was a Russian mathematician and shipbuilder, a prominent representative of the Russian scientific elite of the beginning of the last century. Father - Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa - Nobel Prize laureate, member of more than 30 academies and scientific societies around the world, a great experimental physicist, engineer and thinker, the pride of Russia in the twentieth century. His brother, Andrei Petrovich Kapitsa, is a famous geographer, honorary professor of Moscow State University and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The famous academician, physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, Nobel Prize laureate in 1904, was present at Kapitsa’s christening.

Kapitsa went to school at Cambridge, but he was unable to complete his studies, since in the fall of 1934 his father, who often came to the USSR, was unable to go back to England after his next visit to his homeland. Then the government commission headed by Kuibyshev decided that Pyotr Kapitsa “provides significant services to the British, informing them about the situation in science in the USSR.”

In 1935, Kapitsa’s mother, together with Sergei and his brother Andrei, moved to the USSR.

In 1943, Sergei Kapitsa graduated from external school in Kazan, where his family lived during the war.

Upon returning to Moscow, he entered the aircraft engineering department of the Moscow Aviation Institute.

Within two years after graduation, S.P. Kapitsa worked at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after N.E. Zhukovsky, studied issues of heat transfer and aerodynamic heating at high flow rates. He defended his PhD in 1956.

Since 1953, he has worked at the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences (RAS) as a research fellow, then head of the laboratory, and then as a leading researcher and chief researcher.

Sergei Petrovich with Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov and his wife Elena Bonner

With Maya Plisetskaya

Since 1965, he has been teaching at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. As the head of the department, MIPT actively promotes student independence.

Since 1957, Kapitsa was seriously involved in underwater sports and, together with academician Migdal, became one of the creators of Soviet scuba gear. Kapitsa was one of the first to master scuba diving in the USSR.

Dmitry Medvedev awards Sergei Kapitsa with the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree

In recent years, the scientist has paid active attention to the problems of the information society, globalization and demography. Kapitsa is the author of many scientific publications on demography issues, including the book “The General Theory of Population Growth.”

The program “Obvious-Incredible”, which he created and has been running since 1973, brought enormous popularity to Kapitsa. In 2008, he received a special TEFI prize for his personal contribution to the development of Russian television. Kapitsa was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the TV presenter with the longest tenure of hosting a program.

«

Sergei Kapitsa with his wife Tatyana.

In December 1986, Sergei Kapitsa suffered an unsuccessful attempt by a madman, as a result of which he was injured. During a break in lectures, an attacker entered MIPT and tried to kill a scientist with an ax. Kapitsa was injured and spent some time in the hospital.

Since 2001, Sergei Kapitsa has been the Chairman of the Board of the Non-Profit Partnership “World of Science”.

Since October 2002, he has been the editor-in-chief of the popular science magazine “In the World of Science.”

Sergei Kapitsa was born on February 14, 1928 in Cambridge (Great Britain) into a family of prominent Russian scientists. His father, academician Pyotr Kapitsa, is a Nobel Prize laureate, a member of more than 30 academies and scientific societies around the world, a great experimental physicist, engineer and thinker. Sergei Kapitsa's grandfather was a mathematician and shipbuilder, academician Alexei Krylov.
Sergei Kapitsa began his scientific activity in 1949, working in such areas of physics as supersonic aerodynamics, terrestrial magnetism, applied electrodynamics, and elementary particle physics. The main subject of Sergei Kapitsa's research later became the demographic revolution, the dynamics of the growth of the Earth's population, the use of the theory of dynamical systems and well-known methods of theoretical physics and synergetics in forecasting the future.
In 1983, he organized a publication in the USSR called “In the World of Science” of the Russian version of the popular science magazine Scientific American and was its editor-in-chief.

Sergei Kapitsa died... 08/14/2012

Http://youtu.be/EW45jxfSA_c

Excerpt from the documentary film “Good afternoon to Sergei Kapitsa”

Http://youtu.be/-Rp39Qdxd74

Obvious-incredible - screensavers for TV shows

Http://youtu.be/BavhSEiPmz4




“Comrade scientists, precious Einsteins, beloved Newtons...” In the first row: winner of the Nobel, Lenin and three Stalin Prizes Lev Landau, English theoretical physicist, one of the creators of quantum mechanics, Nobel Prize winner in physics Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, theoretical physicist, academician Vladimir Fock. Standing: Nobel laureate in physics Igor Tamm, Nobel laureate in physics Pyotr Kapitsa, mathematician, theoretical physicist, academician Nikolai Bogolyubov

Sergei Kapitsa's parents are Anna Alekseevna and Pyotr Leonidovich

Peter Kapitsa from Cambridge to his mother Olga Ieronimovna in St. Petersburg, May 15, 1928: “The christening was on Wednesday... Despite our request, he still dunked his son headlong, he screamed and choked. Father Alexei got scared and mixed up all the prayers...” Photo from the family archive of S.P. Kapitsa

Sergei with his mother, 1928

With father, Cambridge, 1928. At that time, Pyotr Kapitsa worked in the laboratory of the famous physicist Ernest Rutherford. “Cambridge was then the center of global physics: all the most significant discoveries of those years were made there.”

Sergei Kapitsa with his brother Andrey, 1931

Sergei Kapitsa was born in Cambridge and lived in the UK until he was seven years old.

To prevent Sergei Kapitsa from envying his younger brother Andrei, who was walked in a stroller, the future scuba diver, pilot and avid racing driver was bought his first bicycle. Photo from the family archive of S.P. Kapitsa
Sergei Petrovich remembers his British childhood well, “although those memories are constantly confused with later ones. First of all, I haven’t forgotten the language: I speak Russian and English almost the same.”

With mother Anna Alekseevna in Cambridge, 1993. “Mom kept order in the house, and, in my opinion, the regime she maintained extended my father’s life.”

With Father. Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa - academician who received the Nobel Prize for fundamental discoveries and inventions in the field of low temperature physics, one of the founders of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology


Sergei Kapitsa with his wife

Sergei Petrovich with his parents and wife Tatyana Damir in Czechoslovakia

Sergei Petrovich (standing on the left) with his brother Andrey and his parents (sitting in the center) in the circle of relatives, friends and students






Sergei Kapitsa: “I’m like a black crow!”

Sergey Kapitsa
Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes "Don Quixote")
Photo project by Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya "Classic Album"



Sergei Kapitsa: “Memories for me are always, first of all, the memories of my grandfather, which he wrote in Kazan during the war, when he was the same age as I am now. They will always be an example for me. This is not a systematic biography, but incidents from life that stand out from the author's memory. The most interesting thing that can be found in them is the connection of times, a living connection between people and events...” Photo from the family archive of S.P. Kapitsa


15th anniversary of the Taganka Theater. At the microphone - Bulat Okudzhava, third from left in the first row - Sergei Kapitsa


Today it is important to form a top layer in science, based not on the assimilation of knowledge, but on the cultivation of understanding - Photo: Alexey Mayshev


The country needs a new system for training highly qualified scientists and managers, says famous Russian scientist Sergei Kapitsa - Photo: Alexey Mayshev




Embrace the immensity. Presenter Sergei Kapitsa (1978)

Http://youtu.be/N2ChkjOmDcA

Living universe. Presenter Sergei Kapitsa (1979)

Http://youtu.be/UWecdTznr6o

Family of the Sun. Presenter Sergei Kapitsa (1981)

Http://youtu.be/env0XiRzqAI

The program "Obvious - Incredible", dedicated to the problems of time.
Sergey Kapitsa and Konstantin Kedrov 2003

Http://youtu.be/HX5OZP4N1MQ

Sergei Petrovich Kapitsa about knowledge and understanding

Http://youtu.be/7O-TdhSVkH0

Sergei Kapitsa History from the future

Http://youtu.be/Uc3ZJT8lxh4

Academician Sergei Petrovich Kapitsa shares his thoughts on the development of humanity...

Http://youtu.be/s1iKpAARWHY

Sergei Petrovich Kapitsa was born on February 14, 1928 in Cambridge - his father, an outstanding physicist and future Nobel Prize laureate Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, was there on a scientific trip at that time. Sergei Petrovich’s mother is Anna Alekseevna Krylova, daughter of the famous shipbuilder Alexei Nikolaevich Krylov.

“My father was a professor and studied physics,” recalled Sergei Kapitsa. “He went there in 1921, immediately after the Civil War and Revolution, when, after the terrible Spanish flu epidemic, he lost his first family. He lost his father, a prominent military builder, his first wife and two children. There was a terrible blow, and then with a group of scientists, which included his future father-in-law Academician Krylov, his teacher Ioffe and a number of other prominent scientists, he, as the scientific secretary of the delegation, was sent by decision of the Soviet government to Europe to restore scientific ties with European science. Then he was seconded to Rutherford’s laboratory in England, where his brilliant career began.”

It is interesting that Sergei Petrovich was baptized, and his godfather was the great physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov.

In 1935, the family moved to Moscow, and Sergei Petrovich graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute. At the age of 33 he became a Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. He worked at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, from where he was fired due to his father’s disgrace. Then he worked at the Institute of Geophysics, at the Institute of Physical Problems named after. P. L. Kapitsa RAS. For 35 years he headed the country's largest department of physics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

As a scientist, Sergei Kapitsa is known for his work in the field of applied electrodynamics, supersonic aerodynamics, and the study of terrestrial magnetism. Later, the main subject of his research became the demographic revolution and the dynamics of world population growth.

But Sergei Kapitsa gained the greatest fame as an outstanding popularizer of science. It all started with the book “The Life of Science,” which is a collection of prefaces and introductions to the fundamental scientific works from Vesalius and Copernicus to the present day, through which one can trace the development of science. The publication of this book became a prerequisite for the creation of the television program “Obvious - Incredible,” the permanent presenter of which Sergei Kapitsa has been since February 1973—it was then that the first episode of the program was released on television. “The Obvious - the Incredible” enjoyed enormous popularity, as evidenced by its mention in Vysotsky’s song or numerous anecdotes about Sergei Kapitsa and his colleagues on other popular science television programs, Nikolai Drozdov from “In the Animal World” and Yuri Senkevich from “The Club” travelers."

Over the past 39 years, the regular broadcast of the program was interrupted only twice. This happened for the first time in 1991.

“It was a time when Kashpirovsky and all sorts of other Chumaks reigned on the screen. The rational word found no place in the public consciousness. The crisis of the program “Obvious - Incredible” coincided with a crisis of attitude towards science in the public consciousness, but science will survive any crisis,” recalled Sergei Kapitsa in one of his last interviews.

Another forced break from the program occurred in 2006, when “Obvious - Incredible” “moved” from the TVC channel to “Russia”.

In addition to working on television, Sergei Petrovich, starting in the 80s, was the editor-in-chief of the magazine “In the World of Science,” the Russian-language version of the world-famous international magazine Scientific America.

Sergei Kapitsa is a member of more than 30 academies and scientific societies around the world. Here are some of them: European Academy of Sciences, World Academy of Arts and Sciences (Washington), Club of Rome.

But Sergei Petrovich was not an academician of the main national academy - the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Last year, he was elected to full membership of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the department of global problems and international relations, but lost the election. However, the Russian Academy of Sciences noted the merits of Sergei Petrovich by awarding the first Gold Medal in its history in 2012 for outstanding achievements in the field of dissemination of scientific knowledge.

Kapitsa called the fight against pseudoscience one of his main tasks.

“We don’t see any slowdown yet. Since I started popularizing science, the problem has become even more acute,” said Sergei Petrovich shortly before his death. — The activities of all kinds of charlatans and astrologers have become wider. This is a significant question that reflects the confusion in the minds of our times of transition. The volume of funds circulating in this area is comparable to the funding of science in general. The attitude towards science in the state reminds me of the joke about the horse and the gypsy, who, in order to save money, began to give it half as much oats - and nothing goes wrong. Then he cut the rations in half again - she was alive again. The gypsy again cut back on the amount of oats. Finally the horse died. So is science. You can’t test her survival for so long!”

Sergei Petrovich Kapitsa died a year and 11 days after the death of his brother, Andrei Petrovich Kapitsa, an outstanding geographer, author of the largest geographical discovery in the 20th century: the subglacial Lake Vostok in Antarctica.

“The main miracle is that we live. Our life itself is, of course, a great miracle. The birth of a child and what happens to him before our eyes, when in one and a half to two years he achieves such colossal progress, is also absolutely incredible. Although it’s obvious!” - said Sergei Kapitsa.