Last month, Darwin’s Ark turned curiosity into community at “The Truth about Cats and Dogs,” a science fair co-hosted at the Broad Discovery Center and MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Our scientists stepped out of the lab and into the limelight to connect face-to-face with fellow animal lovers about the science behind our pets’ health, behavioral quirks, and ancestry.
Although much of Darwin’s Ark’s community science happens online, this in-person event was a paws-on opportunity to engage with our pet science mission. Visitors had the chance to chat directly with our scientists, peruse posters about Darwin’s Ark projects, participate in a live Q&A, and craft custom puzzles for their pets.
Broad Discovery Center: Poster sessions and colorful questions
The Broad Discovery Center is a free science museum with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on Cambridge’s busy Main Street. At the daylong pet science fair, Discovery Center visitors explored posters highlighting Darwin’s Ark projects—Darwin’s Cats, the Dog Cancer Project, and the Working Dog Project—and chatted with researchers about everything from fur-based DNA sequencing to working dogs to cat ancestry.
One popular activity was the coat coloring station, where an oversized printout of a Darwin’s Cats survey question invited guests to color pictures of their pets’ coats. The result was a mural of calicos, tabbies, tuxedos, and bridles—plus a few unusually colorful coats—that celebrated the dazzling diversity of our four-legged friends.
MIT Museum: Science chats and puzzles for cats
Just a five-minute stroll from the Broad Discovery Center, the MIT Museum continued the pet party with spotlights on scientific conversation and hands-on creativity. The MIT Museum hosted an Ask Me Anything session featuring evolutionary behavior expert Dr. Kathryn Lord and Darwin’s Ark Chief Scientist Dr. Elinor Karlsson.
