Original Website Blurb from 2011
Don't ask me why; I just really like the phrase "Shelter Bitch." I think it'll catch on.
I hit the National Institutes of Health’s PubMed database and found that Belyaev’s work on the silver fox continues in Russia. Most of today's episode came as a result of reading this paper:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19260016
and another about a separate project on the red fox in Scotland:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15694295
Aside from the very collie-like blue-eyed kits being absolutely freaking adorable, this is super-cool because it means the silver fox was not a fluke. Replication is important in science.
Here’s the Pinker piece I mentioned on the decline in violence (relative to population size, not in absolute numbers), which also links to a TED talk on the same subject.
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/pinker07/pinker07_index.html
Updates from 2021
It did not catch on.
Chloe the Wonder Dog
is now a trim and vibrant old lady, a subject enrolled in the Dog Aging Project, a citizen science initiative involving tens of thousands of dogs and their owners. They’ve gotten quite a bit of press coverage, but if you happen not to have seen any of that …
The goal of the Dog Aging Project is to understand how genes, lifestyle, and environment influence aging. We want to use that information to help dogs and people increase healthspan, the period of life spent free from disease. With help from you, we’ll gather information on thousands of participating dogs. We want to know what factors are associated with better health and longer lives. A subset of participating dogs will be selected to be part of a new clinical study to explore the potential of the drug rapamycin to improve healthspan.
Assisted Communication
There’s a new book out about dogs learning to speak, using the same kinds of push-button boards that some humans and apes use.
https://www.aarp.org/entertainment/books/info-2021/speech-therapist-taught-her-dog-to-talk.html
Yes, yes, AARP. They start sending you stuff at 50, these days.
Chloe would probably enjoy such a board, but she doesn’t really need one. She’s effective at using body language to get what she wants.
REFERENCES from the show
Evolution for Everyone, including a short excerpt and a five-minute recorded reading of that excerpt.
Pierre Boulle’s Planet of the Apes, with a similar short free teaser excerpt, and 19 whole pages on the “look inside” link.
VSI Episode 17