Since 1987, an Italian physicist named Stronzo Bestiale has been widely cited and published numerous times. There's nothing strange about that until you learn two key pieces of information:
First, Stronzo Bestiale loosely translates to mean “total asshole.”
And second, he doesn't actually exist.
He was invented by Professor William G. Hoover, who needed another co-author to lend credibility to a paper that had originally been rejected for publication by the Journal of Statistical Physics. Hoover, frustrated, sat through a long flight near two Italian women who kept using the term “stronzo bestiale” in conversation. And a tiny light bulb went on in Hoover's brain.
Bestiale has since been published several times, been cited over one hundred times in other papers, has a complete Scopus profile, and apparently works with the Institute for Experimental Physics at the University of Vienna.
He was outed recently by an Italian science writer named Vito Tartamella, who also happens to be the author of a book on surnames. When he stumbled across Bestiale's byline, he immediately knew something was amiss and contacted Professor Hoover for the real story.
