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Matthew Cobb

@matthewcobb

Professor Emeritus (University of Manchester), writes on biology, history of science & French Resistance. Most recent book: a biography of Francis Crick. Now writing THE IDEA OF HEREDITY. Link to publications: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8258-4913

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Latest posts by Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb

Enjoying the new Lanchester book though the big reveal is obvious long before it’s revealed (if it is). More importantly, I’m not sure he has ever ordered delivery pizza, because *you pay when you order* (this is a plot point).

07.03.2026 10:22 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Aubrey Beardsley rude naked breast is the reason. But it depends on the viewer’s settings. I have boldly said I am ok with artistic nudity so get to see the thumbnail in all its partial glory.

07.03.2026 10:04 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Great news! To show how things are complicated, saving the condor led to the deliberate extermination of another species - the louse that lives on them - when the last surviving birds were taken into captivity, decades ago.

07.03.2026 08:37 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

I got 12 but not sure they are the right 12!

07.03.2026 08:31 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Or

IN THE SILENT PINE FOREST

You could
Hear a
Needle drop

07.03.2026 06:37 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

She is very very smart.

07.03.2026 06:34 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Painting of a young white girl, upper half, with her back to the viewer, standing by a window in an interior, there are bottles on the windowsill with flowering twigs in them

Painting of a young white girl, upper half, with her back to the viewer, standing by a window in an interior, there are bottles on the windowsill with flowering twigs in them

'Spring at the Window' by Tetyana Yablonska (1917-2006), Ukrainian painter #WomensArt

07.03.2026 05:16 👍 331 🔁 58 💬 2 📌 5
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【HP更新7/8】ルリボシカミキリ。
2021年撮影分より、写真を1枚追加し、1枚削除しました。
roki.main.jp/site/sp0083....

07.03.2026 02:13 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Eyes on the weekend like 👀⁠

Rattails, or macrourids, are common throughout the world’s ocean. Those big blue eyes give the rattail an edge at finding food in deep, dark waters, and their keen eyesight reveals prey like fishes and squid darting just above the seafloor. ⁠

07.03.2026 00:17 👍 85 🔁 20 💬 1 📌 2

No, Claude is not anxious.

Anxiety requires two components:

1. Awareness of the possibility of annihilation of self.
2. An autonomic nervous system.

Mimicry of the words of an anxious person is not being anxious.

A dog can be anxious. Your plagiarism machine cannot.

06.03.2026 20:44 👍 342 🔁 89 💬 6 📌 0
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I could try and say something relevant, topical, profound even on the general state of everything. However what I feel I need is a small, purple, Sea Lavender Weevil. So here it is. #Nature

06.03.2026 18:43 👍 93 🔁 14 💬 7 📌 2
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Quick plug for our new resource, the Drosophila Species Stock Exchange. This is a database and mailing list that documents species currently in culture and the labs holding them. If you want to know more or sign up then please get in touch. See attached for more info and please share!

06.03.2026 19:59 👍 22 🔁 21 💬 2 📌 1
A lane rolls gently down a hill towards a small farmstead in early spring. The first trees are in blossom.

A lane rolls gently down a hill towards a small farmstead in early spring. The first trees are in blossom.

Other work by the Ladybird artists
‘Spring Landscape’
Artist: Ronald Lampitt

06.03.2026 19:46 👍 216 🔁 26 💬 1 📌 1
Preview
Dynamics of natural selection preceding human viral epidemics and pandemics Using a phylogenetic framework to characterize natural selection, we investigate the hypothesis that zoonotic viruses require adaptation prior to zoon…

There's a common misconception that zoonotic viruses require significant adaptation to jump from animals to cause human epidemics.

Not so 👇.

Further, we see clear signs of 1977 flu experiencing cell passage, prior to epidemic.

SARS-CoV-2? Business as usual.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

06.03.2026 17:33 👍 124 🔁 56 💬 6 📌 1

Don’t have access to the chapter

06.03.2026 16:58 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

And this one

06.03.2026 15:59 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Mailed you this one

06.03.2026 15:57 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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My daughter discovered we have a Chardonnay (not my thing)

06.03.2026 15:27 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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AI and X-Ray Scans Turn Thousands of Ants Into Stunning 3D Models A new high-tech scanning system is rapidly turning thousands of ants into stunning 3D models—building a digital library of Earth’s biodiversity.

🐜🔬 Researchers at the University of Maryland and KIT in Germany are using a synchrotron particle accelerator and AI to build a massive 3D library of #ants. #science

👉 scitechdaily.com/ai-and-x-ra...

06.03.2026 10:30 👍 12 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0

This is a new one.

We authors for a while were plagued with scams disguised as book clubs. "Hi we picked your book for our book club" followed by "we need a lot of money."

Today: I got an email purportedly from another AUTHOR.

It's definitely a scam. These are so painfully cruel.

06.03.2026 14:47 👍 47 🔁 11 💬 4 📌 3
Doing Someone Else’s Crossword | Los Angeles Review of Books The Francis Crick of Matthew Cobb’s new biography was both the consummate insider and a scientific outlier.

Very thoughtful review of CRICK from Angela Creager in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social lareviewofbooks.org/article/fran...

06.03.2026 14:25 👍 8 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0
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With us in the #Cotswolds in May @matthewcobb.bsky.social #Crick #🧪 @profilebooks.bsky.social 💙📚 #booksky and @timcoulson.bsky.social
Tickets and more info here: www.campdenmayfestivals.co.uk/literature/e...

06.03.2026 13:26 👍 1 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
Six women bale hay with a red hay baling machine

Six women bale hay with a red hay baling machine

Evelyn Dunbar was the only woman commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee.

Discover D in our A-Z of women artists 👉 https://artuk.org/discover/curations/an-a-z-of-1000-women-artists-represented-on-art-uk-dabis-to-dwight-18093

🧑‍🎨 Evelyn Mary Dunbar (1906–1960) 📸 Museum Wales

06.03.2026 12:25 👍 26 🔁 10 💬 1 📌 1

Sending it by post!

06.03.2026 12:30 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Gosh!

06.03.2026 12:30 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Sounds like a plan.

06.03.2026 08:21 👍 8 🔁 3 💬 2 📌 0

Same, Sam, but for me it’ll be a train to Sidcup to see my aunt.

06.03.2026 08:19 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Have spent 25+ years teaching and communicating science, often to people who have little interest or knowledge of science. Have helped many prominent scientists and science institutions communicate their work to the public. Wrote this book for people who didn‘t understand / enjoy science at school:

06.03.2026 07:58 👍 23 🔁 9 💬 0 📌 0
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Icymi last night, I was surprised and honoured to win the Hatchard’s First Biography Prize for CRICK. I even got a big cheque!

06.03.2026 07:42 👍 66 🔁 5 💬 11 📌 6
Photo of a few square inches of tree trunk. Growing on the tree trunk are several grey lichens (growing flat on tree), a lichen that looks like a bunch of tiny egg yolks, and a bright red fungus that looks like a half dozen or so round/oval red blobs.

Photo of a few square inches of tree trunk. Growing on the tree trunk are several grey lichens (growing flat on tree), a lichen that looks like a bunch of tiny egg yolks, and a bright red fungus that looks like a half dozen or so round/oval red blobs.

A few square inches of tree trunk. At least 4 species of lichens (Parmelia, two Physcia species and Caloplaca) plus Red Tree Brain Fungus. #lichen #fungi #fungifriends.

06.03.2026 00:52 👍 2347 🔁 281 💬 51 📌 14