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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Wolf And The Philosopher, Mark Rowlands
The Wolf And The Philosopher, Mark Rowlands
The Chautauqua Journal
Some years ago, I wrote a book called The Philosopher and the Wolf. It should really have been called The Wolf and the Philosopher. The wolf is the star, the philosopher an insignificant extra bumbling around in the background. The book is about many things, but fundamentally, I suppose, it is about growing up. I’ve recently finished a sequel of sorts. It’s called Running with the Pack and it’s a book about growing old. There is, I suspect, a natural trilogy to be written here, but I hope I don’t have to write the final part for some …
How To Build A Domesticated Fox: The Start Of A Long Journey, Lee A. Dugatkin
How To Build A Domesticated Fox: The Start Of A Long Journey, Lee A. Dugatkin
The Chautauqua Journal
In 1959, outside of Novosibirsk, Siberia, Dmitri Belyaev and Lyudmila Trut began what remains one of the longest-running experiments in biology. For the last 59 years they have been domesticating silver foxes and studying evolution in real time. Belyaev died in 1985, but Trut has continued to lead this experiment up to this very day. Each generation they and their team have been selecting the calmest, most prosocial-toward-humans foxes and preferentially breeding those individuals. Today they have foxes that are calmer than lap dogs, and who also look eerily dog-like—floppy ears, wagging tail and all. Belyaev and Trut’s results have …