Question: What domestic animal is the co-author of an influential physics paper?
Answer: A cat named F.D.C. Willard (for Felix Domesticus Chester Willard) was listed as co-author on an oft-cited 1975 physics paper entitled Two-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc 3He. In fact, of course, the cat didn’t actually contribute, but the human author, Jack H. Hetherington, had used the royal “we” throughout the paper, and the journal would only allow that usage if there were multiple authors. Since those were typewriter days and changing the pronoun would require a complete retyping, Hetheringon simply added his cat as co-author. The gimmick was actually enjoyed by much of the physics community, and Chester the cat was later credited as sole author of his own physics paper in 1980—and this time he wrote it in French.
