50 Years Ago

Kapitza By A. M. Biew. — This book, written in Germany by a refugee, purports to tell how the U.S.S.R. developed the hydrogen bomb with Kapitza as the principal scientist and with Joffe and Kurtchatov as his principal colleagues... Practically every detail which can be checked is wrong. It is stated that by 1928 Kapitza “had already become in practice the head of the establishment”, that is, the Cavendish Laboratory. This at a time when Rutherford was in his prime! The Royal Society Mond Laboratory, which was built for Kapitza's work, is referred to as the “Moon Laboratory”. Sensational accounts are given of attempts to lure Kapitza back to the U.S.S.R. in the 1930's. In fact, he returned most years to see his mother and visit friends... The book states that the Russian atom bomb project started in 1937. While we may be permitted to be sceptical about this, we can at least check the few brief paragraphs about the physics of the project. These appear to be as bogus as the account of Kapitza's Cambridge period. J. D. Cockcroft

From Nature 23 February 1957.

100 Years Ago

The following illustration of Prof. Karl Pearson's “Random Path” problem may be of interest. Mr. Kipling in his story “The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes” gives the following directions for finding the safe path across a quicksand, which directions are supposed to have been found by the hero of the story in the coat of an earlier victim:— “Four out from crow-clump; three left; nine out; two right; three back; two left; fourteen out; two left; seven out; one left; nine back; two right; six back; four right; seven back.” These numbers were probably taken at random, and it will be noted that seventy five paces are taken, and the final position is only seven paces from the original position. This is a rather curious confirmation of Lord Rayleigh's solution to the problem.

From Nature 21 February 1907.