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Nor do Western experts take much comfort in the fact that while 44 Americans have won or shared Nobel Prizes, the Russians have copped only three. In 1956 Nikolai Semenov won the prize for his studies of the basic chain reactions of all explosive forces—work he carried out 20 years ago. On any list of the world's top scientists, the name of Lev Landau would have to appear for his discoveries in the field of high and low temperatures. Peter Kapitsa, who was enticed back from England's Cambridge University in 1934, is still a leader in cryogenics—or low-temperature physics. The term "Tamm States"—the surface electronic states of solids discovered by Igor Tamm —is common everywhere. Physicist Igor Kurchatov probably knew the basic principles of the A-bomb before U.S. Physicist Vladimir Veksler developed the synchrotron principle that enabled Russia to build its huge accelerator. Andrei Kolmogorov almost singlehanded brought the Soviet abreast of the best in the field of probability.
Status of Russian science in key fields:
MATHEMATICS. Traditionally, one of Russia's specialties. In pure mathematics and statistics, on a par with anything in the West. Russia has solved the complex riddle of the giant atom-smashing accelerator, produced the exact solution of superconductivity, but lags in automation. More Soviet mathematics books have been translated into other languages than any other subject.
PHYSICS. Landau's institute "is probably the best in the world," says Oxford's Kurt Mendelssohn. "In some aspects of nuclear particle physics, and in the theory of superfluidity, it is undoubtedly the best." The Soviet ranks high in cryogenics, crystallography and reactor work. But it still trails the U.S. in low-tension nuclear physics and paramagnetic resonance. "In my own field of neutron physics," says Donald Hughes of Brookhaven, "I could find no activity to compare with that of the U.S."
CHEMISTRY. The Soviet is generally behind, notably in the development of synthetic fibers and plastics, the synthesis of vitamins and isolation of antibiotics. Khrushchev himself has called for a crash program in plastics. "Comrades! The fulfillment of this task must become a nationwide cause!"
BIOLOGY. "The state of Soviet genetics," says one U.S. expert, "can be summed up in two words: simply lousy." Lysenko, who has been pushed into the shade but rated three separate pats on the back in a recent Khrushchev speech, all but destroyed what was once the pride of Rus- sian science. On the other hand, the distinguished Mendelian geneticist, N. P. Dubinin, is back in business, and the Russians now publish more studies of flora and fauna than anyone else.
MEDICINE. Probably ten years behind the West. Nevertheless, Russia by U.N. statistics has a lower mortality rate than the U.S., is developing techniques for radical heart surgery. One British evaluation of Soviet hospitals: "The nurses are nifty, the plumbing nauseous." Research in cancer is a comparatively recent development. Psychoanalysis is anathema and Russian psychology suffers from an excess of Pavlovism.
GEOPHYSICS. At the March meeting of the academy, one speaker boasted: "The whole world recognizes our leadership in this field." It does.