Articles

How cats domesticated themselves
No one set out to tame the cat. It walked into the grain stores of the first farmers about 10,000 years ago and stayed — barely changed from the wildcat it still is.

What selective breeding actually does to an animal
Choosing which animals have babies is the most powerful force in a pet’s biology. A Soviet fox experiment shows how fast it works — and how much it costs.

How we know: reading the ancient DNA of dogs and cats
The story of pet origins was rewritten in the last fifteen years — not by new bones, but by pulling readable DNA out of old ones. Here is how that actually works.

Why cats can’t taste sweetness — and dogs can
A cat is deaf to sugar because a single taste gene broke long ago. That one fact opens up the whole biology of the obligate carnivore in your kitchen.

What the world looks like to a cat
Blurry up close, washed-out in colour, six times brighter at night — and smelling like a newspaper you can't read. A tour of your home through your cat's senses, and what it changes about how you run it.

Whiskers: the instrument panel on your cat's face
Air-current radar, gap gauge, mood indicator and night-hunting sight — whiskers do jobs eyes can't. How the instruments work, what whisker positions tell you, and the honest verdict on whisker fatigue.