Uploaded November 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Speaker: Jonathan Losos, Director, Living Earth Collaborative; William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences, Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis
Do lions and tigers meow? Why does my cat leave dead mice at my feet? Should I get a pet ocelot? How did the cat make its leap off the African plain? The domestic cat has, through both natural and artificial selection, transformed into one of our planet’s most successful and diverse species. Yet the cat, ever a predator, still seems only one paw out of the wild.
Join Jonathan Losos, scientist, cat lover, and author of The Cat’s Meow (Viking Press, 2023), to learn how researchers are using modern technology to unravel the secrets of the cat and explore the future for both Felis catus and Homo sapiens.
Presented by the Harvard Museum of Natural History and Harvard Museums of Science & Culture. The Evolution Matters Series is supported through the Herman and Joan Suit lecture Fund and presented in their memory.
“[An] engaging and wide-ranging narrative…The Cat’s Meow is a readable and informed exploration of the wildcat that lurks within Fluffy.”
—The Washington Post
“Losos is an engaging and often funny guide who explains the science clearly and with nuance.” —New Scientist
“[A] labyrinth of fascinating riddles explored by Jonathan Losos—himself a lifelong ailurophile as well as an eminent evolutionary biologist—in this engaging and very smart book.”
—David Quammen, author of The Song of the Dodo and Breathless
Speaker: Jonathan Losos, Director, Living Earth Collaborative; William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences, Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis
Do lions and tigers meow? Why does my cat leave dead mice at my feet? Should I get a pet ocelot? How did the cat make its leap off the African plain? The domestic cat has, through both natural and artificial selection, transformed into one of our planet’s most successful and diverse species. Yet the cat, ever a predator, still seems only one paw out of the wild.
Join Jonathan Losos, scientist, cat lover, and author of The Cat’s Meow (Viking Press, 2023), to learn how researchers are using modern technology to unravel the secrets of the cat and explore the future for both Felis catus and Homo sapiens.
Presented by the Harvard Museum of Natural History and Harvard Museums of Science & Culture. The Evolution Matters Series is supported through the Herman and Joan Suit lecture Fund and presented in their memory.
“[An] engaging and wide-ranging narrative…The Cat’s Meow is a readable and informed exploration of the wildcat that lurks within Fluffy.”
—The Washington Post
“Losos is an engaging and often funny guide who explains the science clearly and with nuance.” —New Scientist
“[A] labyrinth of fascinating riddles explored by Jonathan Losos—himself a lifelong ailurophile as well as an eminent evolutionary biologist—in this engaging and very smart book.”
—David Quammen, author of The Song of the Dodo and Breathless
