Scientific Article Written by a ... Cat

Science Jeanette Walsh
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When you read scientific articles you do not expect one of them to be written by a … cat. This happened in the ’70s, however, the material was signed ’F.D.C. Willard ‘ and was very welcomed by the scientific community.

In 1975, Jack H. Hetherington, professor of physics at Michigan State University, completed an article about the behavior of atoms at different temperatures. The material, entitled ‘Two-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc 3He’ contained throughout its submission for type ‘we’, ‘our opinion’ or ‘we believe’ as is customary scientific articles.

At that time, the magazine in which Hetherington was to publish his material, Physical Review Letters accepted articles written in the plural if they belonged to more than one author. Because the American professor could not modify his article and he did not want his name to be associated with that of other researchers, he has decided to name as coauthor of the study his Siamese cat, Chester.

Because he could not mention in the article just ‘Chester’, Professor Willard specified name ‘FDC Willard’ where FDC represented the abbreviation of ‘Felix Domesticus, Chester’ and ‘Willard’ was Jack’s father’s name. FDC Willard was regarded as a colleague researcher at the University of Michigan, which is why the article has been published in the Physical Review Letters 35’s.

Shortly after the publication of the article, the co-authored mystery was revealed when one of his colleagues wanted to meet the F.D.C. Willard.

‘Everyone laughed and soon the cat came out of the bag,’ said the physics professor at one point.

The researcher went on to publish the articles under the names of both authors.

Inspired by F.D.C. Willard’s contribution in science, the American Physical Society in 2014 said that all articles written by cats will be available for free. Let’s not forget the time that was given this statement: April 1st.