The Feline Affair (An Incident Series Novelette) Read Online Free Page B

approximation of a cat, an idealization.
A perfect cat,” Dr. Mooney said. “Ah, here we go,” he added as the
printer finished its business. He explained for my benefit, “This
is a translation of the original paper in which Dr. Schrödinger
first brings up the thought experiment. ‘The Present Situation in
Quantum Mechanics,’ published in 1935 in the journal Die
Naturwissenschaften .”
    I glanced over his arm at the densely written
paper.
    “It’s this paragraph here in section five,”
Dr. Mooney added, tapping his copy. He read the relevant bit out
loud. “‘A cat is penned up inside a steel chamber, along with the
following diabolical device, which must be secured against direct
interference by the cat.’” He looked up at us. “See? Schrödinger
knew enough about cats to realize that the creature wouldn’t hang
around idly next to an experimental apparatus without disturbing
it…Almost as if he owned one himself.”
    Dr. Rojas cleared his throat and read out a
couple of sentences of his own. “‘Perhaps in the course of one hour
one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps
none…The psi-function of the entire system would express this by
having in it the living and the dead cat (pardon the expression)
mixed or smeared out in equal parts.’ Hmm, pretty cold-blooded if
you were talking about your own household companion, wouldn’t you
say?”
    “He does say ‘pardon the expression.’”
    “Exactly, as if the cat is just a figure of
speech.”
    After a few more minutes of this, Dr. Rojas
hurried off to a summer semester class he was teaching, taking his
copy of “The Present Situation in Quantum Mechanics” with him, and
I commented, “Sounds like you two are at an impasse.”
    “As usual the only way to settle this for
sure is with a run into the past,” Dr. Mooney said, taking a lab
stool and offering me one. There was work waiting for me back at my
office, but somehow I found myself sitting down. “The first task,
of course, is deciding where to go,” the professor said,
considering the matter. “Academia was just as topsy-turvy then as
it is now, so between that and all the war upheavals in Europe,
Schrödinger lived in a lot of places: Vienna, Stuttgart, Zurich,
Berlin, Oxford, and later in Graz and Dublin. Obviously, we should
start by looking in 1935, the year he published his article.” He
tapped the paper in his hand. “He was at Oxford then. If we find a
cat with him in Oxford, it will settle matters. If we don’t, we
might have to go to one of the other places, perhaps all the way
back to his childhood in Vienna.
    “I might go to the library to find a
biography of Schrödinger so I can trace the evolution of his ideas.
And I can pore over his correspondence with Einstein to see if he
mentions owning any pets. The real problem will be getting a STEWie
roster spot…Perhaps we could piggyback on a run that’s already on
the roster.”
    “You need to look at his personal life,” I
said.
    “Hmm…What’s that, Julia?” Perched on the lab
stool, he had returned his attention to the paper.
    “You need a gossipy book, something that
talks not just about his scientific accomplishments but about his
home life.”
    “Good point, Julia…Yes, a gossipy book.”
    “What’s that?” I pointed to the whiteboard
behind him, where a line had been drawn down the middle. One side
said YES, CAT ; below was a list of names, each in a
different handwriting. The other side said NO CAT , with a
list of about the same length.
    “Wagers,” Dr. Mooney explained without
bothering to look up from the paper. “This one has everyone
buzzing. Dr. Baumgartner is on my side—she is relying on her
personal experience with cats—while Dr. Little thinks a cat would
have been too much of a distraction to Schrödinger.”
    “Is taking money for bets on campus legal?
I’m pretty sure Dean Sunder wouldn’t approve.”
    “We aren’t betting money, Julia, just
bragging