FDC Willard

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

FDC Willard (* 1968 in Holt , Michigan ; † 1982 in Haslett , Michigan ) was a Siamese cat named Chester who, as the only specimen of its kind known to date, published two papers on low-temperature physics in scientific journals internationally , one as a co-author and that other times as the sole writer.

background

The American physicist and mathematician Jack H. Hetherington , Michigan State University , wanted to publish some of his research results in the field of low-temperature physics in the Physical Review Letters , a renowned journal, in 1975 . A colleague to whom he had given his article for review drew his attention to the frequent use of the first person plural ( pluralis Auctoris ) in it and advised him that the magazine would reject articles in this form if only one author was drawing for them . Instead of copying the article again with appropriate corrections or finding a co-author, Hetherington decided to invent one.

Publications

FDC Willard's signature

Hetherington owned a Siamese cat named Chester , which was descended from a tomcat named Willard . Following the fashion of several first names, he invented other first names for his house cat in the manner of biological art : Felis domesticus , and abbreviated them accordingly: FDC His article entitled “Two-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc "He", written by JH Hetherington and FDC Willard, was accepted by the journal and published in number 35 of November 1975.

At the 15th international conference for low temperature physics in Grenoble in 1978 , the second author, who was also invited, was exposed; Hetherington had signed the proof copy of his article with the paw prints of his co-author and sent a few copies to friends and colleagues. Nevertheless appeared now solely on FDC Willard , an article entitled "L'hélium three solid. Un antiferromagnétique nucléaire ”, published in September 1980 in the French popular science journal La Recherche . Then Willard disappeared as an author from the professional world.

reception

Through the exposure of the second author, Hetherington's Physical Review essay, which has been referenced many times, became world famous and the co-authorship formed legends. It is said that inquiries to Hetherington's institute at Michigan State University were happy to be referred to the co-author in his absence. Also, as it is sometimes said, the collaboration has come to an end due to differences in content. FDC Willard appeared repeatedly in footnotes in which he was thanked for "helpful contributions to the discussion" or verbal communications.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b F.DC Willard in PI Engineering ( Memento from October 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Heinrich Zankl (2008), PDF p. 14
  3. ^ JH Hetherington and FDC Willard: Two-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc³He . In: Phys. Rev. Lett. 35: 1442-1444 (1975). doi : 10.1103 / PhysRevLett.35.1442
  4. ↑ Robert L. Weber (1982), pp. 110-111
  5. ^ Elise Costa: Le chat qui avait écrit dans un journal scientifique . At: Slate.fr 2016 (accessed April 9, 2018)
  6. ↑ Example: Frequency of Zero Field Resonance in Solid 3 He . doi : 10.1143 / JPSJ.49.2077
  7. ^ Cats and Publishing Physics Research ( Memento June 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Heinrich Zankl (2008), PDF p. 15

Web links