Saturday, September 12, 2009

Mutation of/by love?

I read about this remarkable 40 year experiment of Fox domestication in Siberia, in an essay by Carl Zimmer in What's Next: Dispatches on the Future of Science  (misnomer, should have been future of neuroscience. This is a MUST read collection of essay's).


This experiment was conducted sans biotechnology. Through selective breeding based on tameness and tameness only,  for about 40 generation, the foxes developed social intelligence and developed a striking physical changes resembling the dogs. Here is the new article about dog cognition in Times by Carl Zimmer: 


"In the 1950s, Soviet scientists set up an experiment on a farm outside the city of Novosibirsk to understand how animals were domesticated. They decided to study foxes, which are closely related to wolves and dogs.
The Russians began by breeding a group of foxes according to one simple rule: they would walk up to a cage and put a hand on the bars. Foxes that slunk back in fear and snapped their teeth didn't get to breed. Ones that came up to the scientists did. Meanwhile, the scientists also raised a separate group of foxes under identical conditions, except for one difference: they didn't have to pass a test to mate.
More than 40 generations of foxes have now been bred in Novosibirsk, and the results speak for themselves. The foxes that the scientists bred selectively have become remarkably doglike. They will affectionately run up to people and even wag their tails. In 2003, Hare traveled to Novosibirsk and ran his pointing test on baby foxes. The ordinary ones failed miserably. As for the doglike ones, "they did just as well as puppies right out of the box," Hare says. As the animals were bred for their affability, a new side of their social intelligence was apparently awakened."


Can you hear Darwin screaming "I told you so !!" ?
Dogs are the only species  other than humans to understand the facial emotions, follow the gaze and understand to look in the direction of where a finger is poiting. (Not even Chimps can do this)
Max knows most of my expressions and at times when I am poker faced, he watches me like a Hawk and figures it out in moments. At times I get a feeling Max knows my emotions before I feel them myself. Check out this fascinating findings about the Brain making the decision before we even know it . 
Sometimes while playing frisbee, few seconds before I decide to stop playing (even before I thought about stopping), Max stops and makes sure that I understand that he is not ready to call it quits yet !!
This has happened quite a few times , may be its just a coincidence or may be he knew about my Brain's decision even before I did. 
No wonder, they don't allow dogs in Vegas.

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