In 1959, a Soviet research team in Novosibirsk began breeding silver foxes for nothing but tameness, and within forty generations the animals had floppy ears, curled tails, piebald coats, and a bark, traits no one had selected for but which appeared on their own once fear was removed. (opens in new tab)

In 1959, Soviet geneticist Dmitri Belyaev began a breeding experiment in Novosibirsk with a dangerous simplicity: choose only the silver foxes least likely to fear a human hand, and ignore everything else. Genetics had been politically dangerous in the Soviet Union under Trofim Lysenko. Belyaev had already lost his Moscow post for his commitment to […]