You don’t see a lot of cats headlining science news. Anonymous lab mice, Pavlov’s dogs, even Dolly the Sheep gets more recognition than most of the cats on this list. Yet every one of the pioneer pussycats featured here deserves to bask in their own shaft of sunlight upon the great bed of science. In honor of National Cat Day, we recognize these 5 cats.
1. Schrödinger’s Cat
It’s practically a natural law that if you write anything about science and cats, you have to mention Schrödinger’s Cat. Which is not an actual cat — indeed, there’s some doubt as to whether Erwin Schrödinger ever owned a cat. But the physicist and Nobel laureate did devise this thought experiment in 1935, which places a hypothetical cat in a hypothetical box in a hypothetical deathtrap situation where the cat could be said to be both dead and alive until it is directly observed.
When you think about it, it’s a pretty awful scenario to throw out there. (It must be said, however, that history has revealed Schrödinger to be pretty awful himself.) In the interest of historical accuracy, it’s worth noting that Schrödinger did not intend for people to take his live/dead cat scenario seriously. He proposed it as an absurdity, a criticism of then-current thinking regarding quantum theory. But that criticism has adopted a life (and death) of its own ever since. The important thing to remember is that no actual cat died in the making of this particular scenario.
