Matthew Cobb
@matthewcobb.bsky.social
Professor Emeritus (University of Manchester), writes on biology, history of science & French Resistance. Biography of Francis Crick, out in Nov 2025.
Link to publications: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8258-4913
Link to publications: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8258-4913
Xmas shop display of Bethlehem in Coronation Street at The Curious Fox, Beech Rd, Chorlton. All made by Stewart, the co-owner. Zoom in for the details.
November 10, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Xmas shop display of Bethlehem in Coronation Street at The Curious Fox, Beech Rd, Chorlton. All made by Stewart, the co-owner. Zoom in for the details.
You may recall a post about an upcoming Crickiana auction. Here are the results. The 'diaries' are in fact lab notebooks from his first PhD, on 'the most boring subject in the world' (the viscosity of water under pressure) which he abandoned when he was conscripted in 1940.
November 10, 2025 at 9:50 AM
You may recall a post about an upcoming Crickiana auction. Here are the results. The 'diaries' are in fact lab notebooks from his first PhD, on 'the most boring subject in the world' (the viscosity of water under pressure) which he abandoned when he was conscripted in 1940.
These brave men. The end of Scott’s last expedition. Read these diary entries; they will sober you up.
November 8, 2025 at 11:22 AM
These brave men. The end of Scott’s last expedition. Read these diary entries; they will sober you up.
Grifters gonna grift.
From the fabulous Polar Museum in Cambridge.
From the fabulous Polar Museum in Cambridge.
November 8, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Grifters gonna grift.
From the fabulous Polar Museum in Cambridge.
From the fabulous Polar Museum in Cambridge.
To the memory of the good Jim. From the RAF bar of the Eagle which is where they used to drink.
November 7, 2025 at 8:15 PM
To the memory of the good Jim. From the RAF bar of the Eagle which is where they used to drink.
Terrific day @mrclmb.bsky.social - tea, lovely homemade cakes, chats with young and old, signed and sold all the copies of my book (32! should have brought more) and had a lovely time giving a talk about Francis Crick. Thanks to all, especially Shahana Ahmed who organised it all and made the cakes!
November 7, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Terrific day @mrclmb.bsky.social - tea, lovely homemade cakes, chats with young and old, signed and sold all the copies of my book (32! should have brought more) and had a lovely time giving a talk about Francis Crick. Thanks to all, especially Shahana Ahmed who organised it all and made the cakes!
The opening paragraph to Crick’s thesis - about protein structure - from July 1953. Ok, he was 37, but even so the writing is so clear. Those last two sentences effectively set out a global research programme that would last decades.
November 6, 2025 at 8:34 AM
The opening paragraph to Crick’s thesis - about protein structure - from July 1953. Ok, he was 37, but even so the writing is so clear. Those last two sentences effectively set out a global research programme that would last decades.
UK publication day for this wrist-spraining beauty! Appropriately, I’m travelling to Cambridge, where I’m doing a book launch talk at the LMB tomorrow afternoon.
November 6, 2025 at 6:26 AM
UK publication day for this wrist-spraining beauty! Appropriately, I’m travelling to Cambridge, where I’m doing a book launch talk at the LMB tomorrow afternoon.
The draft of the never-completed 'Scale' book included a poem that Crick composed in the bath, about the Moon and Earth seen from the point of view of a lunar colonist who lived on the far side. Here is the beginning and the end.
November 5, 2025 at 6:17 PM
The draft of the never-completed 'Scale' book included a poem that Crick composed in the bath, about the Moon and Earth seen from the point of view of a lunar colonist who lived on the far side. Here is the beginning and the end.
Crick bemoaning (to children) the absence of a poetry of the vast gulfs of space.
November 5, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Crick bemoaning (to children) the absence of a poetry of the vast gulfs of space.
Draft of part of Crick's planned children's book on 'scale' (1975).
November 5, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Draft of part of Crick's planned children's book on 'scale' (1975).
Some good guessing here. The announcement was made two days later…
November 5, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Some good guessing here. The announcement was made two days later…
Fun fact: 'pedigree' comes from 'pied de grue' - 'crane's foot' - because of the way that early pedigrees were drawn.
November 5, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Fun fact: 'pedigree' comes from 'pied de grue' - 'crane's foot' - because of the way that early pedigrees were drawn.
Brenner's copy of a New Yorker cartoon that was repeatedly moved around various noticeboards (note the pin holes)
November 4, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Brenner's copy of a New Yorker cartoon that was repeatedly moved around various noticeboards (note the pin holes)
One I missed because I didn't know it existed until after the book was finished – a B&W scan of the cover of Nature marking the 'coming of age' (ie 21st anniversary) of the double helix. I am trying to find a colour image of the original (most libraries stripped off the covers when binding...)
November 4, 2025 at 5:50 PM
One I missed because I didn't know it existed until after the book was finished – a B&W scan of the cover of Nature marking the 'coming of age' (ie 21st anniversary) of the double helix. I am trying to find a colour image of the original (most libraries stripped off the covers when binding...)
Crick in a sombrero, with an unidentified man, in Italy, July 1955, where he was at a meeting in Pallanza on macromolecules.
November 4, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Crick in a sombrero, with an unidentified man, in Italy, July 1955, where he was at a meeting in Pallanza on macromolecules.
Here's Sydney Brenner, talking on BBC TV to Raymond Baxter about molecular biology in 1960. Behind him are some of the exhibits made for the 1958 Brussels Expo (l-r: TMV, polio, DNA). The polio structure was supervised by Rosalind Franklin, who died before the Expo took place.
November 4, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Here's Sydney Brenner, talking on BBC TV to Raymond Baxter about molecular biology in 1960. Behind him are some of the exhibits made for the 1958 Brussels Expo (l-r: TMV, polio, DNA). The polio structure was supervised by Rosalind Franklin, who died before the Expo took place.
Cambridge graffiti, late 1960s. This kind of slogan was generally used for guitar heroes (Clapton, Alvin Lee, Hendrix). In this case, it appears the same person also scrawled 'Keep the lefties out' and 'Enoch is right' (amended by another hand to 'Enoch is a right pratt').
November 4, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Cambridge graffiti, late 1960s. This kind of slogan was generally used for guitar heroes (Clapton, Alvin Lee, Hendrix). In this case, it appears the same person also scrawled 'Keep the lefties out' and 'Enoch is right' (amended by another hand to 'Enoch is a right pratt').
Another one that didn't make it. Francis and Odile on their wedding day, 1949. Odile made her own dress.
November 4, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Another one that didn't make it. Francis and Odile on their wedding day, 1949. Odile made her own dress.
A photo that didn't make it into the book, sadly, though it is described. Francis carrying his granddaughter, @kindracrick.com on his shoulders in the 1970s.
November 4, 2025 at 9:57 AM
A photo that didn't make it into the book, sadly, though it is described. Francis carrying his granddaughter, @kindracrick.com on his shoulders in the 1970s.
This sketch of Francis in the Green Door flat (so 1948-51), reading Nature or Vogue or some other magazine, was sold at Christie's for $17,500 in 2013.
November 4, 2025 at 9:55 AM
This sketch of Francis in the Green Door flat (so 1948-51), reading Nature or Vogue or some other magazine, was sold at Christie's for $17,500 in 2013.
One of the plates that appears in the UK edition of CRICK, but sadly not the US edition. A sketch of Francis by Odile, drawn in 1948-9 in the tiny Green Door flat they lived in on Thompsons Lane.
November 4, 2025 at 9:51 AM
One of the plates that appears in the UK edition of CRICK, but sadly not the US edition. A sketch of Francis by Odile, drawn in 1948-9 in the tiny Green Door flat they lived in on Thompsons Lane.