#AnniversaryStory
If you are at the Old Cavendish on Free School Lane, you may have seen the above image of a crocodile. But did you know that it could have been made after a joke?
Nicknamed Kapitsa’s crocodile, after Nobel Laureate and leading Soviet physicist Pyotr Kapitsa, its origin has been tracked to the much-loved director of Cavendish Laboratory between 1919 and 1938 - Ernest Rutherford.
It seems like Kapitsa loved to refer to Rutherford as Crocodile: ‘Today the Crocodile summoned me twice about my manuscript… Only now have I really entered the Crocodile’s school… which is certainly the most advanced in the world and Rutherford is the greatest physicist and organiser.’
In an interview, Kapitsa explains the origin of Crocodile as being a symbol of fatherhood and a sign of respect. Others speculate it is due to Rutherford’s bad habit of loudly marching towards his destination. If so, Kapitsa was probably referencing ‘Tik-tok the crocodile’ from ‘Peter Pan’, making a jab at Rutherford that he could hear him before he saw him! Whatever the explanation, Rutherford may not have been pleased with this name, especially since Kapitsa later commissioned a crocodile carving on the new laboratory that Rutherford built!
Senior Scientists on Free School Lane. From left to right: Blackett, Kapitsa, Langevin, Rutherford, C.T.R Wilson (1929)
During Kapitsa’s 13-year time in the Cavendish, he studied strong magnets and was known for setting up the Kapitsa Club. This was an informal meetup of some of the best physicists, with guests including Paul Dirac and Werner Heisenberg, where they discussed interesting and controversial physics problems and concepts.
Right: Kapitsa sitting in his office in the Mond Laboratory (1934).
As is often the case, culture sometimes gets recycled and turned into something new and fresh: Nowadays, Kapitsa’s crocodile has made a revival in the form of the Cambridge University Physics Society’s logo (CUPS)! CUPS works to bring the undergraduate and postgraduate physics community together, hosting academic talks and social events. Now the only question we have left is how Kapitsa would react, knowing the crocodile is now used as the logo for CUPS, carrying on in the footsteps of Kapitsa’s Club.
CUPS's crocodile logo.
Main Image: Kapitsa's Crocodile on the Mond Laboratory exterior.
Image Credit: Cavendish Laboratory Collection and CUPS
Article contributed by Dhruv Shenai.
This article is part of our 150th Anniversary Cavendish stories.