Matthew Cobb

Matthew John Cobb (born 4 February 1957) is a British zoologist and Emeritus professor of zoology at the University of Manchester. He is known for his popular science books The Egg & Sperm Race: The Seventeenth-Century Scientists Who Unravelled the Secrets of Sex, Life and Growth; He completed his PhD in 1983.

Career and research From 1981 to 1984, Cobb conducted twin studies at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, research he later described as trying "to get human twins drunk". He has said, "This was interesting, but convinced me that I did not want to do research on human beings". Cobb has worked at the University of Manchester, initially as a lecturer in animal behaviour and later as professor of zoology.

Communicating science Cobb has become known to a wider audience through his books for the general public. In 2007, his book The Egg and Sperm Race: The Seventeenth-Century Scientists Who Unravelled the Secrets of Sex, Life and Growth won the Thomson Reuters/Zoological Record Award for Communicating Zoology.

Life's Greatest Secret: The Story of the Race to Crack the Genetic Code,

In 2020, Cobb's book The Idea of the Brain It was also chosen as one of The Sunday Times''' Books of the Year and The Daily Telegraph listed it as one of its "50 best books of 2020".

Cobb has made many appearances on radio, including appearances on the BBC science programmes The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry, Inside Science, and The Infinite Monkey Cage. In March 2020, he was the subject of the BBC Radio 4 programme The Life Scientific.

Cobb has written and provided expert comments for publications including New Scientist and The Guardian, translated five books from French into English,

Awards and honours In December 2020, The Genetics Society said that it was "delighted to announce Professor Matthew Cobb as the winner of the 2021 JBS Haldane Lecture" adding that he is expected to present his lecture at the Royal Institution, in November 2021.

In 2024 Cobb was awarded The Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal and Lecture by the Royal Society for his work documenting the history of biology as both an author and a broadcaster.

Publications Cobb's publications Drosophila cuticular hydrocarbons revisited: mating status alters cuticular profiles The Genetic Age: Our Perilous Quest To Edit Life Smell: A Very Short Introduction The Idea of the Brain: A History Life's Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code Eleven Days in August: The Liberation of Paris in 1944 Generation The Black Box of Biology: A History of the Molecular Revolution Insect Taste: Vol 63 ''