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🔗 Russia 🔗 Dogs 🔗 Russia/science and education in Russia 🔗 Genetics

The domesticated silver fox is a form of the silver fox that has been to some extent domesticated under laboratory conditions. The silver fox is a melanistic form of the wild red fox. Domesticated silver foxes are the result of an experiment designed to demonstrate the power of selective breeding to transform species, as described by Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species. The experiment at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk, Siberia explored whether selection for behaviour rather than morphology may have been the process that had produced dogs from wolves, by recording the changes in foxes when in each generation only the most tame foxes were allowed to breed. Many of the descendant foxes became both tamer and more dog-like in morphology, including displaying mottled or spotted coloured fur.

In 2019, an international research team questioned the conclusion that this experiment had provided strong support for the validity of domestication syndrome. They did conclude that it remains "a resource for investigation of the genomics and biology of behavior".

🔗 Medicine 🔗 Dogs 🔗 Psychology 🔗 Anthropology 🔗 India 🔗 Medicine/Psychiatry

Puppy pregnancy syndrome (PPS) is a psychosomatic illness in humans brought on by mass hysteria.

The syndrome is thought to be localized in villages in several states of India, including West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, and Chhattisgarh, and has been reported by tens of thousands of individuals. It is far more prevalent in areas with little access to education.

People suffering from PPS believe that shortly after being bitten by a dog, puppies are conceived within their abdomen. This is said to be especially likely if the dog is sexually excited at the time of the attack. Victims are said to bark like dogs and have reported being able to see the puppies inside them when looking at water or hear them growling in their abdomen. It is believed that the victims will eventually die – especially men, who will give birth to their puppies through the penis.

Witch doctors offer oral cures, which they claim will dissolve the puppies, allowing them to pass through the digestive system and be excreted "without the knowledge of the patient".

Doctors in India have tried to educate the public about the dangers of believing in this condition. Most sufferers are referred to psychiatric services, but in some instances patients fail to take anti-rabies medication before symptom onset, thinking that they are pregnant with a puppy and that folk medicine will cure them. This misbelief is further compounded by witch doctors who state that their medicine will fail if sufferers seek standard treatment.

Some psychiatrists believe that PPS meets the criteria for a culture-bound disorder.

🔗 Soviet Union 🔗 Russia 🔗 Russia/technology and engineering in Russia 🔗 Spaceflight 🔗 Dogs 🔗 Russia/science and education in Russia 🔗 Russia/history of Russia

Laika (Russian: Лайка; c. 1954 – 3 November 1957) was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft, launched into low orbit on 3 November 1957. As the technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, Laika's survival was never expected. She died of overheating hours into the flight, on the craft's fourth orbit.

Little was known about the impact of spaceflight on living creatures at the time of Laika's mission, and animal flights were viewed by engineers as a necessary precursor to human missions. The experiment, which monitored Laika's vital signs, aimed to prove that a living organism could survive being launched into orbit and continue to function under conditions of weakened gravity and increased radiation, providing scientists with some of the first data on the biological effects of spaceflight.

Laika died within hours from overheating, possibly caused by a failure of the central R‑7 sustainer to separate from the payload. The true cause and time of her death were not made public until 2002; instead, it was widely reported that she died when her oxygen ran out on day six or, as the Soviet government initially claimed, she was euthanised prior to oxygen depletion. In 2008, a small monument to Laika depicting her standing atop a rocket was unveiled near the military research facility in Moscow that prepared her flight. She also appears on the Monument to the Conquerors of Space in Moscow.