Jonathan B. Losos

Enjoyable, but a mixed bag. As a lifelong cat person, I'm always in search of serious, credible, scientific information about these beings with whom I share my life. Losos is a breezy, readable, affable guide to the scientific literature about cats: how they evolved, spread throughout the world and were domesticated (sort of), the varieties there are: big cats vs small cats, purebreds vs randombreds, house cats vs wildcats; and how they live their lives under various circumstances. He's a hands-on sort of guy: after researching the various studies that track free-ranging cat activity (or lack thereof) via GPS and/or videorecordings, he gets one for his own cat and "replicates" the data point of his cat Winston himself. We get a peek into the world of the "cat fancy," cat shows, and breeders. I kept wandering out of the room to read tidbits to my husband and whichever cats were nearby, who stared at me sagely with a look like, well, duh! Cat lovers will find lots of such snippets to enjoy.

However, an editor might have put a gentle paw on Losos's arm to rein in an excess of genomics - lengthy, detailed descriptions of genes and alleles and natural selection and the bits and pieces that influence coat color and texture, body shape, ear placement, even tooth length. While I always applaud good efforts to explain scientific information to interested laypeople, sometimes there is just too much of a good thing, and eyes start to glaze. He also gets rather excited about the messing about with genes that humans like to do to animals - like maybe creating cats that don't want to go outdoors, in order to keep the cats and the world's birds safer - while being appropriately critical of the wretchedness of Persian cats deliberately bred to not have a nose or the Scottish Fold cats whose ears lie flat because of a genetic defect that actually weakens ALL their cartilage, dooming them to deteriorating and painful joints. But I part company with him when he enthuses about the potential for re-creating small, friendly saber-toothed cats, or the penchant of breeders to create "new" cat breeds via crossbreeding with servals or other cat types, creating a whole lot of "not quite there" versions along the way - who all need homes too, right? The ethics of deliberately creating a whole lot of "stylish" new cats as status symbols and commercial merchandise doesn't really come up, and I fault him for that.

Other readers have complained about the plethora of footnotes - I read and enjoy those extra asides and scraps of information. But for a book intended to transmit scientific information, I hated the way the references are given - dense paragraphs listing mostly websites at the back of the book, and while he clearly knows the literature and the experts, his reliance in the text on references to Facebook pages and online surveys can feel a bit superficial. Still, I'd have loved to take his introductory "Science of the Cat" class!… (altro)