This is one of my favorite things. Look at what they achieved with foxes in less than a century, then think of the tens of thousands of years we've domesticated dogs. The whole field of "dog science" is both fascinating and heartwarming.
I know this is a downer, but given that the article states that 18% of the population are "elite" after 10 generations, and there are 2000 elite foxes now, doesn't "strong selection pressure" imply there were around 10K-30K individuals culled in this project for not belonging to "elite"? Is this normal breeding practice? Speaking as a somewhat guilty owner of a beloved papillon-breed dog.
Radiolab on NPR had a great episode (New Normal) where one of three bits (New Nice) was about Dmitri Belyaev and these foxes. They also present the interesting idea that humans might have domesticated ourselves.<p><a href="http://www.radiolab.org/story/91696-new-nice/" rel="nofollow">http://www.radiolab.org/story/91696-new-nice/</a>
I want one of their hyper-aggressive rats: <a href="http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2014/04/17/004234" rel="nofollow">http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2014/04/17/004234</a>