Pâté de Foie Gras is a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...

 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

Only a Trillion

Only a Trillion is a collection of ten science essays and three scientific spoof articles by Isaac Asimov. It was the first collection of science essays published by Asimov. It was first published by Abelard-Schuman in 1957...

, in his 1968 short story collection Asimov's Mysteries

Asimov's Mysteries

Asimov's Mysteries, published in 1968, is a collection of 14 short stories by Isaac Asimov, all of them science fiction mysteries...

, and in The Complete Stories, Vol. 2

The Complete Stories (Asimov)

The Complete Stories is a discontinued series intended to form a definitive collection of Isaac Asimov's short fiction. Originally published in 1990 and 1992 by Doubleday, it was discontinued after the second book of the planned three....

.

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

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 of a goose that lays golden eggs.

Plot

A goose is discovered that is laying gold eggs. The goose, it is learned, is transmuting one naturally occurring isotope of oxygen into gold. The goose's liver contains enzymes which are able to catalyze nuclear reactions. Asimov was a biochemist and his reasoning remains sound in that any metabolic pathway that yields either as much as or not significantly more energy than that contained at the start of the pathway will not negatively interact with cellular proteins. However, the goose would be incinerated should it lose metabolic control of the gold metabolic pathway, as atomic transmutation yields energies 4 orders of magnitude (or 10,000 times greater) than that of a biochemical reactions. The enzymes have a useful property, however, and that is the ability to absorb any nuclear radiation to which the goose is exposed, and to render harmless any nuclear material with which the enzymes are fed.

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 contain a lot of gold, it can't reproduce (a variety of heavy-metal poisoning). The narrator decides to contact Asimov and have him write up the story, soliciting the readers of Astounding for ideas.

Solutions

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 still being able to breathe 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 (if there is a gander for it to mate with).

Since the story was written, the development of cloning has created a second possible solution.