The article today, posted to Physics World, by Professor Robert P. Crease, in the Department of Philosophy at Stony Brook University, New York, and titled “Stop This Historic Science Site in St Petersburg From Being Sold”, warns of the imminent loss of an important site connected to 18th-century Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov. The site was the location of a laboratory established by Mikhail Lomonosov, whose work in science was also known and appreciated by Benjamin Franklin.
Crease begins: “In the middle of one of the most expensive neighborhoods in St. Petersburg, Russia, is a vacant and poorly kept lot about half an acre in size. It’s been empty for years for a reason: on it stood the first scientific research laboratory in Russia—maybe even the world—and for over two and a half centuries generations of Russian scientists hoped to restore it. But its days as an empty lot may be over, for the land could soon be sold to the highest bidder.”
The lab was opened in 1748 and was equipped with furnaces, ovens, thermometers, microscopes, grindstones, and other instruments for studying materials. Lomonosov’s idea was for a lab devoted entirely to basic research and development that could engage and train students to do empirical research on materials.
In 1793 an academician bought the land from the Academy of Sciences and rebuilt the lab as housing, although preserving its foundations and the old walls. Over the next century, various private owners purchased the plot, again rebuilding the laboratory and associated house.
The area was leveled during the Siege of Leningrad in the Second World War, though the lab’s foundations remained intact. After the war, the Soviet Union tried to reconstruct the lab, as did the Russian Academy of Sciences. More recently, advocates have tried to rebuild the lab in time for the 300th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Science, which takes place in 2024-2025.
