{"id":42083,"date":"2015-07-14T01:31:05","date_gmt":"2015-07-14T08:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=42083"},"modified":"2015-07-14T01:31:05","modified_gmt":"2015-07-14T08:31:05","slug":"life-work-f-d-c-willard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2015\/07\/life-work-f-d-c-willard\/","title":{"rendered":"The Curious Tail errr, Tale of F.D.C. Willard"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Scientist<\/a>

Not F.D.C. Willard<\/p><\/div>\n

In the world of physics the name F.D.C. Willard is simultaneously treated with both reverence and derision. On one hand, he co-authored an often cited paper on low temperature physics at age 7 and was the sole author of another entire paper on the subject in French<\/em> just a few years later at age 12. On the other hand, he was also a cat.<\/p>\n

The story of Willard\u2019s foray into the world of low temperature physics began in 1975 when his eventual co-author, Professor Jack H. Hetherington, asked a colleague at Michigan State University to read over a paper he\u2019d written, Two-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc 3<\/sup>He<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

After reading over the paper, Hetherington\u2019s colleague came back with some unfortunate news- while the content of the paper itself was sound, Hetherington had made a rather silly mistake. You see, throughout the paper, he had often referred to himself using the words \u201cwe\u201d and \u201cour\u201d. Normally this wouldn\u2019t have been a big deal; however, the journal Hetherington was submitting the paper to, Physical Review Letters<\/em>, had a general rule in place that stated papers with a singular author shouldn’t use the first person plural.<\/p>\n

Being the 1970s, Hetherington had typed up the entire paper using a typewriter, so fixing this mistake would have taken him more time than he was willing to invest in it. Being someone with a PhD in physics, Hetherington was no dummy and came up with an easy solution- he decided to make his pet Siamese cat, Chester, a co-author.<\/p>\n

Wanting to give his furry friend a little more credibility, Hetherington stylised Chester\u2019s name as \u201cFelis Domesticus Chester, sired by Willard\u201d which was shortened to \u201cF.D.C. Willard\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hetherington\u2019s ruse worked and a few months later on the 24th<\/sup> of November in the 35th<\/sup> edition of Physical Review Letters, <\/em>they published \u201cTwo-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc 3He<\/a><\/em>\u201d co-authored by one J. H. Hetherington and his colleague, F. D. C. Willard.<\/p>\n

The fact that the mysterious F.D.C. Willard was actually just a cat was first revealed publicly when, according to Hetherington, “a visitor to [the university] asked to talk to me, and since I was unavailable asked to talk with Willard. Everyone laughed and soon the cat was out of the bag.”<\/p>\n

\"pawprints\"<\/a>

F.D.C. Willard’s “Signature”<\/p><\/div>\n

It was made more widely known when Hetherington was sent several copies of the paper to sign and he decided to double down on his ploy by daubing Chester\u2019s paw in ink and slapping it on the page. One of these copies ended up being sent to physicists in Grenoble who were planning on inviting Professor Willard to the “15th International Conference on Low Temperature Physics” in 1978. However, upon seeing the inky paw print on the page and realising that Willard must be a cat, the group making up the list of who to invite decided that neither Willard nor Hetherington should be included on their roster that year.<\/p>\n

Even more controversy followed when it emerged that Hetherington’s wife was sharing a bed not only with her husband, but F.D.C. Willard as well, sometimes at the same time…<\/p>\n

Despite the public relations problem, F.D.C. Willard continued his work in academia, helping out his colleagues by being present in numerous debates about low energy physics with his input being described as \u201chelpful\u201d by his co-workers in private and official correspondence.<\/p>\n

Willard\u2019s contributions to science didn\u2019t go overlooked by his peers in other areas either. For example, in Organic Chemistry: The Name Game<\/em><\/a>, Willard was mentioned; they stated: \u201cAlthough [his] future in physics is uncertain, we like his style and hope he gets tenure.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And, in fact, on November 26, 1975, the chairmen of the physics department at Michigan State University, Dr. Truman O. Woodruff, wrote a letter to Hetherington stating,<\/p>\n

I should never have had the temerity to think of approaching so distinguished a physicist as F.D. C. Willard, F.R.S.C., with a view to interesting him in joining a university department like ours, which after all, was not even rated among the best 30 in the 1969 Roose-Anderson study. Surely Willard can aspire to a connection with a more distinguished department.<\/p>\n

However, heartened by your view that he might conceivably deign to look with favor on the modest opportunity that we have to offer, I do beseech you– his friend and even collaborator– at the most propitious possible time (say, some evening when the brandy and cigars are going around) to raise the question with him (with all possible delicacy, I need hardly add). Can you imagine the universal jubilation if in fact Willard could be persuaded to join us, even if only as a Visiting Distinguished Professor?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Given there are no records of F.D.C. Willard on the university’s payroll, we can only assume he turned up his nose and walked away from such a delectable opportunity, as cats are wont to do.\u00a0 That said, Hetherington did refer to Willard as the university\u2019s \u201cRodentia Predation Consultant<\/em>\u201d. On top of this, Willard was often cited as being instrumental to a number of \u201cdepartmental experiments related to angular momentum and gravitational forces<\/em>\u201d by Hetherington\u2019s peers in Michigan.<\/p>\n

This wasn’t the end of his academic career, though. In 1980, Willard dusted off his pen and effortlessly authored the paper, \u201cL’h\u00e9lium 3 solid. Un antiferromagn\u00e9tique Nucl\u00e9aire<\/em>\u201d entirely in French for the magazine, \u201cLa Recherche<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

In reality, the paper had been written by a collective of researchers from France and America, including Hetherington, who couldn\u2019t agree on certain elements of its content. When no satisfactory compromise could be reached between the members of the group, Hetherington suggested they make F.D.C. Willard the sole author so that if anyone found fault with it, none of their names would be sullied.<\/p>\n

Sadly, F.D.C. Willard passed away in 1982 at approximately 14 years old, but his legacy lived on in the world of science thanks to the fact that the paper he co-authored actually ended up being fairly influential and often cited for its scientific merits.<\/p>\n

When later asked why he made his cat a co-author on the paper, beyond the aforementioned need of not wanting to take the time to fix the instances of the royal “we”, Hetherington explained that “most of us are paid partly by how many papers we publish, and there is some dilution of the effect of the paper on one\u2019s reputation when it is shared by another author. On the other hand, I did not ignore completely the publicity value, either. If [the paper] eventually proved to be correct, people would remember [it] more if the anomalous authorship were known. In any case, I went ahead and did it and have generally not been sorry. Most people are amused by the concept, only editors, for some reason, seem to find little humour in the story.”<\/p>\n

In the end, to honor F.D.C. Willard’s role in helping to break down the barriers keeping felines out of human science careers, the American Physical Society announced on April 1, 2014 that all papers authored by cats would be made \u201cfreely available<\/a>\u201d for the public to read henceforth. They also added that \u201cNot since Schr\u00f6dinger has there been an opportunity like this for cats in physics.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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