Lilian Nattel's Blog, page 59
February 23, 2011
the happy fox wags a tail: from Siberia to Utah
By 1964 the fourth generation [of foxes] was already beginning to live up to the researchers' hopes. Trut can still remember the moment when she first saw a fox wag its tail at her approach. Before long, the most tame among them were so doglike that they would leap into researchers' arms and lick their faces. At times the extent of the animals' tameness surprised even the researchers. Once, in the 1970s, a worker took one of the foxes home temporarily as a pet. When Trut visited him, she found the owner taking his fox for walks, unleashed, "just like a dog. I said 'Don't do that, we'll lose it, and it belongs to the institute!'" she recalls. "He said 'just wait,' then he whistled and said, 'Coca!' It came right back."
Simultaneously, more of the foxes began to show signs of the domestication phenotype: floppy ears retained longer in development and characteristic white spots on their coats. "At the beginning of the 1980s, we observed a kind of explosion-like change of the external appearance," says Trut.
via ngm.nationalgeographic.com
This is a fascinating story that spans 50 years, from the banning of genetics in the Soviet Union to American-Russian cooperation in studying the domestication of foxes and what it teaches about the evolution of domestic animals generally. Click on the link above for the full story.
Filed under: Interesting Tagged: genetics of domestication
the happy fox wags a tail: a story of domestication from Siberia to Utah spanning 50 yrs
By 1964 the fourth generation [of foxes] was already beginning to live up to the researchers' hopes. Trut can still remember the moment when she first saw a fox wag its tail at her approach. Before long, the most tame among them were so doglike that they would leap into researchers' arms and lick their faces. At times the extent of the animals' tameness surprised even the researchers. Once, in the 1970s, a worker took one of the foxes home temporarily as a pet. When Trut visited him, she found the owner taking his fox for walks, unleashed, "just like a dog. I said 'Don't do that, we'll lose it, and it belongs to the institute!'" she recalls. "He said 'just wait,' then he whistled and said, 'Coca!' It came right back."
Simultaneously, more of the foxes began to show signs of the domestication phenotype: floppy ears retained longer in development and characteristic white spots on their coats. "At the beginning of the 1980s, we observed a kind of explosion-like change of the external appearance," says Trut.
via ngm.nationalgeographic.com
Filed under: Miscellany
what does bankruptcy of Borders prove?
Flooding the market with copycats of last year's success won't work. what does? http://ow.ly/41vGj
Filed under: Miscellany
February 22, 2011
take the Toni Morrison quiz
celebrating her 80th http://ow.ly/41vgR
Filed under: Literary Tagged: how much do you know about Toni Morrison?
leader of Egyptian unions to Wisconsin protesters
'We Stand With You As You Stood With Us' http://ow.ly/413kL
Filed under: Interesting, Uplifting Tagged: Egypt support for Wisconsin
fascinating reflections on character in fiction
Roundness" is impossible in fiction, because fictional characters, while very alive in their way, are not the same as real people. It is subtlety that matters – subtlety of analysis, of inquiry, of concern, of felt pressure – and for subtlety a very small point of entry will do.
via guardian.co.uk
Filed under: Miscellany
how important is playing and what does it do for kids?
Whether children play enough isn't an obscure debate among developmental psychologists. If it's true that children who spend too little time playing struggle with executive function, then we may be raising a generation of kids with less self-control, shorter attention spans, and poorer memory skills.
via chronicle.com
See the link above for interesting research on the benefits and necessity of unstructured and imaginative play. I'm relieved to read it. One of my kids, as I write this, is making messenger bags for her dolls out of bubble back and duct tape. She was so busily engaged, I decided not to do any practise writing with her. (The bags are very nice ones too.)
Filed under: Miscellany
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