ESSAY
100 Reasons to Become a Scientist or Engineer
On our 75th anniversary, we collected 75 reasons. Now we've added 25 more
The Editors
79
Lyudmila Trut
My way to science was determined by my great, life-long love for dogs. When I was growing up, my dog always participated in my childhood sports and I was happy that dogs existed on Earth. I often wondered about dogs’ behavior: Why is my dog so intelligent, understanding what I say to him? Why is he so obedient and devoted? By the time I graduated from secondary school, I wanted to learn more about relationships between dogs and people, and I knew that I would investigate dog behavior. I entered the Department of Higher Nerve Function in the Faculty of Biology at Moscow State University. During my last term there, I learned that the geneticist Dmitry Belyaev had launched a project on fox domestication. The ultimate goal of that research was to make wild foxes as domestic as dogs. When I met Belyaev I realized that my scientific fate was sealed.
Lyudmila Trut
Institute of Cytology and Genetics
Russian Academy of Sciences
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