Matthew Cobb – författare

Shortlisted for the 2020 Baillie Gifford PrizeA New Statesman Book of the YearThis is the story of our quest to understand the most mysterious object in the universe: the human brain.Today we tend to picture it as a computer. Earlier scientists thought about it in their own technological terms: as a telephone switchboard, or a clock, or all manner of fantastic mechanical or hydraulic devices. Could the right metaphor unlock the its deepest secrets once and for all?Galloping through centuries of wild speculation and ingenious, sometimes macabre anatomical investigations, scientist and historian Matthew Cobb reveals how we came to our present state of knowledge. Our latest theories allow us to create artificial memories in the brain of a mouse, and to build AI programmes capable of extraordinary cognitive feats. A complete understanding seems within our grasp.But to make that final breakthrough, we may need a radical new approach. At every step of our quest, Cobb shows that it was new ideas that brought illumination. Where, he asks, might the next one come from? What will it be?

Our sense of smell - or olfaction as it is technically known - is our most enigmatic sense. It can conjure up memories, taking us back to very specific places and emotions, whilst powerful smells can induce strong feelings of hunger or nausea. In the animal kingdom smell can be used to find food, a mate, or a home; to sense danger; and to send and receive complex messages with other members of a species. Yet despite its fundamental importance in our mental life and in the existence of all animals, our scientific understanding of how smell works is limited. In this Very Short Introduction, Matthew Cobb describes the latest scientific research on smell in humans and other mammals, in insects, and even in fish. He looks at how smell evolved, how animals use it to navigate and communicate, and disorders of smell in humans. Understanding smell, especially its neurobiology, has proved a big challenge, but olfactory science has revealed genetic factors that determine what we can and cannot smell, and why some people like a given smell while others find it unbearable. He ends by considering future treatments for smell disorders, and speculating on the role of smell in a world of robots.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Insect Taste offers an accessible overview to some of the many advances in insect taste research. The book covers how insects solve the basic problem of taste gustatory processing, from detection and transduction, through coding to the generation of behavior and the evolutionary biology underpinning gustaory learning.

Life's Greatest Secret is the story of the discovery and cracking of the genetic code. This great scientific breakthrough has had far-reaching consequences for how we understand ourselves and our place in the natural world. The code forms the most striking proof of Darwin's hypothesis that all organisms are related, holds tremendous promise for improving human well-being, and has transformed the way we think about life. Matthew Cobb interweaves science, biography and anecdote in a book that mixes remarkable insights, theoretical dead-ends and ingenious experiments with the pace of a thriller. He describes cooperation and competition among some of the twentieth century's most outstanding and eccentric minds, moves between biology, physics and chemistry, and shows the part played by computing and cybernetics. The story spans the globe, from Cambridge MA to Cambridge UK, New York to Paris, London to Moscow. It is both thrilling science and a fascinating story about how science is done.

A TIMES ENVIRONMENT AND SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022'Brilliant .. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough' - Henry Marsh, New Statesman (about The Idea of the Brain)A new gene editing technology, invented just seven years ago, has turned humanity into gods. Enabling us to manipulate the genes in virtually any organism with exquisite precision, CRISPR has given scientists a degree of control that was undreamt of even in science fiction.But CRISPR is just the latest, giant leap in a long journey to master genetics. The Genetic Age shows the astonishing, world-changing potential of the new genetics and the possible threats it poses, sifting between fantasy and the reality when it comes to both benefits and dangers. By placing each phase of discovery, anticipation and fear in the context of over fifty years of attempts to master the natural world, Matthew Cobb, the Baillie-Gifford-shortlisted author of The Idea of the Brain, weaves the stories of science, history and culture to shed new light on our future. With the powers now at our disposal, it is a future that is almost impossible to imagine - but it is one we will create ourselves.

A TIMES ENVIRONMENT AND SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022'The ideal guide to what is not just a fiendishly complex area of science but also an ethical minefield' Mail on SundayA new gene editing technology, invented just seven years ago, has turned humanity into gods. Enabling us to manipulate the genes in virtually any organism with exquisite precision, CRISPR has given scientists a degree of control that was undreamt of even in science fiction.But CRISPR is just the latest, giant leap in a long journey to master genetics. The Genetic Age shows the astonishing, world-changing potential of the new genetics and the possible threats it poses, sifting between fantasy and the reality when it comes to both benefits and dangers. By placing each phase of discovery, anticipation and fear in the context of over fifty years of attempts to master the natural world, Matthew Cobb, the Baillie-Gifford-shortlisted author of The Idea of the Brain, weaves the stories of science, history and culture to shed new light on our future. With the powers now at our disposal, it is a future that is almost impossible to imagine - but it is one we will create ourselves.

AN ECONOMIST, GUARDIAN AND CHURCH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025Winner of the Hatchards First Biography Prize 2025Shortlisted for The Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography 2026 'The definitive backstory of one of the towering figures of 20th-century science' Guardian Books of the Year'Brilliant and inspiring. A landmark biography' Adam RutherfordFrancis Crick was a restless, relentless thinker, as fascinated by Beat poetry and psychedelics as the genetic meaning of life and the inner workings of the brain. Yet for all his drive, he was galvanised by collaboration: with Jim Watson on DNA, with artists in Cambridge and California, and with his wife Odile, who drew the figure of the double helix that illuminated his most famous discovery. It was his debates and conflicts with these collaborators that powered a mind in motion.Meticulously researched and shot through with insight and electrifying detail, Matthew Cobb reveals the man who changed our view of life forever. Crick is the first major biography of one of the twentieth century's most exciting minds.

AN ECONOMIST, GUARDIAN AND CHURCH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARWinner of the Hatchards First Biography Prize 2025'The definitive backstory of one of the towering figures of 20th-century science' Guardian'Brilliant and inspiring. A landmark biography' Adam RutherfordFrancis Crick was a restless, relentless thinker, as fascinated by Beat poetry and psychedelics as the genetic meaning of life and the inner workings of the brain. Yet for all his drive, he was galvanised by collaboration: with Jim Watson on DNA, with artists in Cambridge and California, and with his wife Odile, who drew the figure of the double helix that illuminated his most famous discovery. It was his debates and conflicts with these collaborators that powered a mind in motion.Meticulously researched and shot through with insight and electrifying detail, Matthew Cobb reveals the man who changed our view of life forever. Crick is the first major biography of one of the twentieth century's most exciting minds.