Pâté de Foie Gras (Asimov)
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| Author | Isaac Asimov |
|---|---|
| Country |  USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | science fiction short story |
| Released in | Astounding Science Fiction |
| Publisher | Street & Smith |
| Media Type | Magazine |
| Released | September 1956 |
Pâté de Foie Gras is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov which was first published in the September 1956 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It appeared in Asimov's 1957 science essay collection Only a Trillion, and also in his 1968 short story collection Asimov's Mysteries.
Like the classic The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline, Pâté de Foie Gras is a scientific spoof article. In the story, a nameless Department of Agriculture employee tells of the discovery on a farm in Texas of a goose that lays golden eggs. The goose, it is learned, is somehow transmuting oxygen into gold, all the while absorbing any nuclear radiation to which it is exposed. The story ends with the narrator in a dilemma: in order to discover how the goose is doing all this, it will be necessary to dissect it; but there is only one goose. And, since the goose's eggs are all gold, it can't reproduce. The narrator decides to contact Asimov and have him write up the story, soliciting the readers of Astounding for ideas.
In a commentary on the story, Asimov wrote that it was his intention for there to be a single solution discoverable by the reader. The hint dropped in the story is the description of an experiment in which the goose's gold production goes up when it is given water enriched with oxygen-18. It follows that if the goose is maintained in a closed environment, it will convert all the oxygen-18 to gold (while surviving on the predominant oxygen nuclide (oxygen-16). It will excrete all the gold in its eggs, at which point it can be expected to start producing fertile eggs.
Since the story was written, the development of cloning has created a second possible solution.
[edit] See also
| Asimov's Mysteries |
| The Singing Bell | The Talking Stone | What's in a Name? | The Dying Night | Pâté de Foie Gras | The Dust of Death | A Loint of Paw | I'm in Marsport Without Hilda | Marooned Off Vesta | Anniversary | Obituary | Star Light | The Key | The Billiard Ball |
