184 THE PATH OF SCIENCE 



Similar groups of institutes exist in Russia in all fields of 

 science. A very large organization deals with physics, which 

 is chiefly supported through a division of the government com- 

 missariat of heavy industry known as the Scientific Research 

 Sector. Institutes operated by it include the Physico-Techni- 

 cal Institute in Leningrad, directed by Professor Joffe; the 

 Institute of Chemical Physics in Leningrad; the Optical In- 

 stitute of Leningrad; the Karpov Institute of Physical Chem- 

 istry in Moscow; and the Physico-Technical Institute of 

 Kharkov. That in Russia, as elsewhere, institutes are de- 

 veloped to suit the idiosyncrasies of individual scientists is 

 shown by the example of the Institute of Physical Problems.* 

 This institute was organized by Kapitza in 1937 under the 

 control of the Academy to study problems of theoretical 

 physics, especially those relating to the use of low tempera- 

 tures and strong magnetic fields. In his account of its or- 

 ganization, Kapitza einphasizes his use of a relatively small 

 staff and his practice of following personally the work in the 

 laboratory. 



The elaborate organization of science that has developed 

 in the Soviet Union is, of course, of the same pattern as other 

 developments in that country. It is an organized and planned 

 system erected to perform a specific function, and to only a 

 small extent is it the result of organic growth over a number 

 of years.f 



The recent proposals put forward by Dr. Vannevar Bush, 

 director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, 

 in his report to the President of the United States entitled 



* A very interesting report on the work of this institute by P. L. 

 Kapitza is published in English in Voks Bulletin, No. 9-10, 22 (1943). 



■j- A number of British and American scientists visited Russia on the 

 occasion of the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the 

 Academy of Sciences. Their reports on the scientific work done there 

 (Nature, Sept. 8 and Sept. 15, 1945) show that the actual conduct of 

 work by no means corresponds to the regimented organization suggested 

 in earlier accounts of the system. If we may judge by these reports, the 

 Russian scientific workers control their own work and choose their own 

 problems very much as is done in other countries. 



