Leta 1975 so v znanstveni reviji Physical Review Letters objavil članek z naslovom Two-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc 3He, katerega soavtor je siamski maček F.D.C. Willard. Avtor članka je namreč besedilo napisal v prvi osebi množine, a je šele tik pred oddajo ugotovil, da pravila revije ne dopuščajo, da bi en sam avtor pri pisanju uporabljal množino. Ker je bilo v tistem času tekste težko popravljati, ko so bili enkrat že natipkani, se je domislil inovativne rešitve. Kot soavtorja je dodal še svojega mačka. Tako je bilo pravilom zadoščeno in članek je bil brez težav objavljen.
Hetherington had a Siamese cat named Chester, who was sired by a cat named Willard. Fearing that some of his colleagues would recognize his pet’s name, he thought it better to use the pet’s initial. Aware that most Americans had at least two given names, he invented two more given names based on the species name for a house cat, Felis domesticus, and abbreviated them accordingly: F.D.C. (F.D.C. Willard – Wikipedia)
Prvega aprila leta 2014 je Ameriško fizikalno društvo oznanilo, da bodo sedaj vsi znanstveni članki, katerih soavtorji so mački, prosto dostopni:
APS is proud to announce a new open access initiative designed to further extend the benefits of open access to a broader set of authors. The new policy, effective today, makes all papers authored by cats freely available. This open-minded update is a natural extension of APS’s leadership in both open access and pet publishing. As early as 1975, APS began publishing papers with feline authors, most notably the contribution by one F. D. C. Willard [J. H. Hetherington and F. D. C. Willard, Two-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc 3He, Phys. Rev. Lett. 35, 1442 (1975)]. Going forward, only single author papers will be considered. APS hopes to evaluate allowing publication by canine authors in the near future. Not since Schrödinger has there been an opportunity like this for cats in physics. (Vir: APS Announces New Open Access Initiative)
Prvi del sestavka je zabaven (kako se izogniti okosteneli birokraciji), drugi pa (hvala zdravemu razumu) prvoaprilska šala 🙂