At the 85th year of his life, on August 14, 2012, Sergey Petrovich Kapitsa died. An outstanding scientist with a worldwide reputation, the wide Russian public, he was known as the founder and permanent presenter of the popular program "Obvious-Incredible."
Sergey Kapitsa is a worthy successor to the famous dynasty of scientists. He is the son of physicist Peter Kapitsa, a Nobel laureate. The grandson of the shipbuilder and mathematician Alexei Krylov, the great-grandson of the famous Russian geographer Jerome Stebnitsky.
Sergey Kapitsa was born in Cambridge in 1928. The fact is that at that time his father was on a business trip in England. He worked there in the famous laboratory of Rutherford. Interestingly, little Sergei was baptized, and the great Ivan Pavlov himself, a Russian physiologist, became his godfather. In 1935, the family returned to the USSR. There Sergey graduated from high school, then institute - MAI.
He began scientific work in 1949. He studied elementary particle physics, aerodynamics, electrodynamics. He taught physics at MIPT. He defended himself at the age of 33, became a doctor of physical and mathematical sciences and chief scientific associate of the Institute of Physical Problems.
Soon he became interested in studying demography and the dynamics of population growth on the planet. It was he who proved that the population of the Earth hyperbolically grew up to 1 AD Sergey Kapitsa was a member of the European Academy of Sciences, the Club of Rome, the World Academy of Arts and 30 other various scientific societies of the world. But he was not accepted into the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In our country, this outstanding scientist has gained fame as the best popularizer of science. He was the chief editor of the journal "In the world of science." Then he published the book Life of Science, which briefly described the most fundamental works - from Copernicus to the scientists of our time.
And finally, in 1973, he created the television program "Obvious-Incredible." From the first issue, she enjoyed the love of the audience and went out until the death of Sergei Petrovich. In this program, Kapitsa spoke in an accessible form about the achievements of science. In 2008, he was awarded the TEFFI for his contribution to the development of Russian TV.
