For the last six decades Lyudmila Trut has directed a dedicated team of researchers in Siberia that has been domesticating silver foxes to replay the evolution of the dog in real time. Inside this tale of path-breaking science in the midst of the often brutal -35° F winters of Siberia is hidden a remarkable collaboration between an older, freethinking scientific genius, the geneticist Dmitri Belyaev, and a trusting but gutsy young woman. Together, Lyudmila Trut and Belyaev (who died of cancer in 1985) risked not just their careers but to an extent their lives to make scientific history. Biologist and science historian Lee Dugatkin tells the inside story of the science, politics, adventure, and love behind it all. Like a set of Russian nesting dolls, How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog) opens to reveal story after story, each embedded within the one that preceded it.
Dr. Dugatkin is a Professor and University Scholar in the Department of Biology at The University of Louisville. His main areas of research interest are the evolution of social behavior, and the history of science.