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Matthew Cobb

@matthewcobb.bsky.social

7.6K followers 910 following 3.4K posts

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

orcid.org

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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 5h

You at Wembley? Just whizzed past a FL 66xx7

Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 5h

So glad I stopped listening to it.

Reposted by Matthew Cobb

Marc Gilles @marcgilles.bsky.social · 5h

Want to know everything about bird smell?
I wrote an "Ornithological masterclass" on Avian Olfaction for BTO News @btobirds.bsky.social #ornithology
Link to the article 👉 www.researchgate.net/publication/...

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Filip Husnik @filiphusnik.bsky.social · 1d

OIST is seeking up to four tenure-track or tenured faculty in Ecology, Environmental Science, Earth Science, and Oceanography. Application deadline: Oct 15. Please share. Thx!
www.oist.jp/careers/facu...

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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 6h

NB don’t know if that is true. But would like to know one way or another.

Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 6h

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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 6h

Crick, Brenner, Gurdon - something about the clammy Cambridge air made middle-aged eyebrows grow lush.

Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 6h

@astrologee.bsky.social

Lana Sinapayen @sinalana.bsky.social · 7h

If you haven't yet, come see our poster designed by my coauthor Harrison.
Tl;dr: if some lifeforms were going around terraforming planets, we could detect them* even without a working definition of "life" or "habitability"

*terms and conditions apply

Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 6h

Not much point with dog claws rattling over it…

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Andrea Matranga @andreamatranga.bsky.social · 7h

We have to all learn Navajo so we can talk without AI unserstanding

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Aurélien Genin @astroaure.bsky.social · 8h

🛰 Un à deux Starlink rentrent dans l'atmosphère chaque jour 😮 Il y a 5 ans, on était plutôt à un satellite par semaine ! Et on connaît encore très mal l'impact sur l'atmosphère de ces rentrées, mais les premières études sont pas jolies... Il est urgent de réguler 📢

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 2d

"There are currently one to two Starlink satellites falling back to Earth every day ... Soon, McDowell told us, there will be up to 5 satellite reentries per day." 😳

1 to 2 Starlink satellites are falling back to Earth each day

earthsky.org

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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 6h

Opening scene of your film. Next choice: blockbuster or avant-garde?

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Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 7h

Tarzan strikes

BBC Newsnight @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social · 20h

“You described Reform and other parties across Europe today as among the 'right wing equivalents of the fascists in the 1930s'. Why?”

“Because that’s what they are”

@vicderbyshire.bsky.social asks Lord Heseltine about remarks he made at Conservative Party Conference.

#Newsnight

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 7h

1776: One swallow.

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Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 17h

Okay britpol is none of my business but this attitude fills me with incandescent rage

Rachel Reeves’ words about environmental delays to a housing development: “ She described the planning blockage as being due to "some snails on the site that are a protected species or something", adding:
"They are microscopic snails that you cannot even see, and they haven't been able to build there." The chancellor appeared to be referring to the little whirlpool ramshorn snail, which is 5mm in diameter, and one of the rarest creatures in Britain. It is an indicator of clean rivers and ponds…”

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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 17h

Ollie and Pepper making laser eyes at the Xmas chicken.

Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 17h

Today we said goodbye to the king of cats, Pepper. He was nearly 19 and a beautiful cat. Confident, assertive and yet very mild-mannered (he just assumed everything would go his way and it did). He faded away in the last few weeks. We all miss him, and his brother Ollie, terribly.

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Paul Robichaud @pjrobichaud.bsky.social · 1d

West Kennett Long Barrow, July 2023. #TombTuesday

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rru.bsky.social @rru.bsky.social · 23h

Amazing! This made my day, great to see these animals help retain water in this year of drought!

Heal Rewilding @healrewilding.org.uk · 23h

🤯 Prepare to have your mind blown... What does six months of beaver productivity at Heal Somerset look like? Like nothing we could imagine or recognise!

Watch out for the stick from July onwards...🤪 iykyk 🦫

#BeaverLove #UKWildlife #Rewilding #EcosystemEngineers #WildlifePhotography

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Guss' 👑 @guguss0074.bsky.social · 20h

Nouveau drapeau français au-dessus de l’Élysée ce soir…

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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · Mar 15

One of the amazing things about science is we will never run out of mysteries.

Take "Naturwissenschaften (2003) 90:495–500", which performed a survey of 10,000 dinosaur fossils for evidence of tumors in the bone.

I was prepared for yes, no, but what I wasn't prepared for was:
"only in hadrosaurs."

It's a black and white paper header for a short communication, and I've copied the text below. Please stop reading if you don't want the literal copy to be read to you.
"Naturwissenschaften (2003) 90:495–500
DOI 10.1007/s00114-003-0473-9
SHORT COMMUNICATION
B. M. Rothschild · D. H. Tanke · M. Helbling ·
L. D. Martin
Epidemiologic study of tumors in dinosaurs
Received: 16 June 2003 / Accepted: 29 August 2003 / Published online: 14 October 2003 Springer-Verlag 2003"

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Cahir O'Kane @cahirokane.bsky.social · 23h

Sad to hear of the death of John Gurdon this morning, aged 92.

Professor Sir John Gurdon FRS (1933-2025) | Magdalene College

Magdalene College is deeply saddened to announce the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon FRS, who served as Master of the College from 1995 to 2002.

www.magd.cam.ac.uk

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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 22h

Don’t know and @societyofauthors.bsky.social has not really explained things.

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Chris Gug @gugunderwater.bsky.social · 1d

I’ve never seen so many anemones in all my life! Every surface covered in anemones as far as the eye could see!
.
.
#anemone #clownfish #anemonefish #emperorangelfish #tulamben #bali #chrisgug #gugunderwater #gug

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Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 1d

Quantum electronics "quantum on a new scale" John Clarke Michel Devoret, John Martinis.

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