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Brian Hare tells us the story of Dmitri Belyaev, a geneticist and clandestine Darwinian who lived in Stalinist Russia and studied the domestication of the silver fox. Through generations of selectively breeding a captive population, Belyaev noticed not only increased docility, but also unexpected physical changes. Why did these gentler foxes necessarily look different than their wild ancestors? Tecumseh Fitch has a hypothesis, something about trailblazing cells and embryonic development. And Richard Wrangham takes it a step further, suggesting us humans may have domesticated ourselves.
Photo: flickr/mattknoth
1999 NYTimes article on Belyaev's experiment
Video of aggressive and domesticated foxes in captivity
Scientific American Q&A with Richard Wrangham on human evolution
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This was a great piece. I read the American Scientist piece on Belyaev's foxes in the 1990s and taught from it in my human personality courses at Purdue University. You really put this together in a clear and cogent way. It makes a lot of important points about how evolution works (i.e., with the biological variability and control pathways that exist) and the fact that not all features that are the product of evolutionary processes are themselves adaptations in the sense that selection operated upon them specifically (e.g., the floppy ears are a by-product of selection for other phenotypes by virtue of being tied to the same developmental pathways). Keep up the great work!
This episode is great and coincides perfectly with my Anthropology course!
Caught this story almost by mistake. I was sucked in from the start. The Fitch hypothesis is one I really hope is investigated further. Loved the sound effects too HEHE. Keep up the great stories
Fantastic! Among Radiolab's best.
Well done. it got me thinking.
Thanks
i just came across an article on Reuters about a book called Manthropology: The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male by Australian anthropologist Peter McAllister. in that book he writes, "As a class we are in fact the sorriest cohort of masculine Homo sapiens to ever walk the planet." it seems that he is saying the same thing, basically that modern 'self-domesticated' humans are wimps compared to our ancestors.
First off, I have to say that I truly enjoy how Jad and Robert make topics like this so engaging and thought provoking.
The last section really got me thinking. If society breeds out aggression through capital punishment and the other methods discussed, then will we as a society breed out our instinct to defend and protect ourselves? Is our new future one where we will be trapped in a juvenile state looking elsewhere in futility for protection that has been bred out of a few cultures? What about other cultures that continue to grow unfettered? How would the pacified culture defend itself?
In the recent video of a baby stroller falling in the path of a train, two individuals walk out of the station and appear to not react at all to the baby's harm. Surely they heard the mother screaming. If we breed out aggression, will we be reinforcing apathy?
Great show! What is the name of the acoustic song after the Stu segment? Is there a place where you reference all of the music that you sample? Thanks!
Like Anthony from St Louis, I also came to find out that name of that song. I know the song, I have listened to it over and over again, but I can't remember the name and it's driving me crazy.
Thanks!
Nevermind! I used Shazam for my iPhone and figured it out:
It's Bron-yr-Aur from Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti.
This was a fantastic show, so much so that I had to listen to it twice. Even though I am now 24 and a college graduate, I am forced to recall a lesson from high school biology that discussed natural selection; the article that I read for this class, if I remember correctly, argued that natural selection no longer pertains to humans. Does this then mean that humans are able to evolve as a society without breeding out the unsavory folk?
Great show, very thought provoking!
@Miguel
Interesting reflection, I'm not sure if apathy is the opposite of aggression. Taking the argument that we breed out aggressive behaviour, if we are talking murderers, etc. wouldn't it be only unjustified aggression that is bread out, ie. individuals who cannot control their adrenals, or desires? The person who reacts in legitimate defence (violent assertion does not equal aggression), will still be part of the society and gene pool.
Regards
Here's a page I came across with videos of the Belyaev experiments: http://www.overpill.com/2009/12/21/soviet-scientist-turns-foxes-into-puppies/.
Love the show!
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