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Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa
(8 Jul 1894 - 8 Apr 1984)
Soviet physicist.
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Science Quotes by Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa (2 quotes)
The crocodile cannot turn its head. Like science, it must always go forward with all-devouring jaws.
— Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa
As quoted in Robert S. De Ropp, The New Prometheans: Creative and Destructive Forces in Modern Science (1972), 20, which adds that: “On the building that had been constructed in Cambridge specially to house his researches had been chiseled a crocodile by the sculptor Eric Gill. Esoterically speaking, this referred to Kapitza’s special name for Rutherford, but, for public consumption, he offered a different explanation: ‘Mine is the crocodile of science.’” Kapitza, regarded Rutherford, “The Prof”, as always moving forward, never back.
The year that Rutherford died (1938 [sic]) there disappeared forever the happy days of free scientific work which gave us such delight in our youth. Science has lost her freedom. Science has become a productive force. She has become rich but she has become enslaved and part of her is veiled in secrecy. I do not know whether Rutherford would continue to joke and laugh as he used to.
— Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa
'Notes from Here and There', Science Policy News (1969), 1, No 2, 33.
See also:
- 8 Jul - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Kapitsa's birth.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
