{"id":2504,"date":"2026-01-14T16:09:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/chstm\/?p=2504"},"modified":"2026-02-02T13:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T13:28:10","slug":"chstm-research-seminar-3-february-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/chstm\/2026\/01\/14\/chstm-research-seminar-3-february-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"CHSTM Research Seminar, 3 February 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

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3 February 2026, 4pm BST
Simon Building, Room 2.57 [maps and travel]<\/a>
https:\/\/zoom.us\/j\/99626478734<\/a><\/p>\n

Professor Matthew Cobb, University of Manchester<\/h2>\n

The life and times of Francis Crick, or why it sometimes matters who does science<\/h1>\n

Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>For many decades, historians of science (often retired scientists) focused on the lives of individual scientists and their contribution to discovery. Current historical interest focuses less on individuals, partly because most scientific discoveries are over-determined. For example, if Watson or Crick had fallen under a bus in 1952, then Franklin, or Wilkins, or Pauling, or someone would soon have discovered the double helix in their place. Furthermore, as Crick put it in 2000,\u00a0\u2018Discoveries and inventions are more important than the people who make them.\u2019 But sometimes the individual does matter.\u00a0After the double helix was discovered, none of the clever people involved \u2013 not Watson, nor Franklin, nor Wilkins, nor Pauling \u2013 sought to draw out the deep implications of the structure. Only Crick did that, and his ideas, and the way he proceeded, influenced the course of discovery and the way we now think about genes and cells and evolution.\u00a0Had Crick fallen under a bus in 1954, the course of science would have been different. Crick\u2019s life in science is unusual in that he made major contributions to two areas \u2013 molecular biology and neuroscience. He also developed an acute sense of how he wanted to do science and how he understood the process of discovery, which was linked to his interest in psychedelic poetry.<\/p>\n

Matthew Cobb<\/strong>\u00a0is Professor Emeritus of Zoology at the University of Manchester. He has published a number of trade books in the history of science, including\u00a0The Egg & Sperm Race: The Seventeenth-Century Scientists Who Unravelled the Secrets of Sex, Life and Growth<\/i>;\u00a0<\/sup>Life’s Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code<\/i>;\u00a0<\/sup>and The Idea of the Brain: A History<\/i>. His latest book is\u00a0Crick: A Mind in Motion \u2013 from DNA to the Brain<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Image: Photograph of\u00a0Cavendish students in 1952. Watson and Crick are in the second row, to the left.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

All welcome!<\/p>\n

Seminar Programme on the CHSTM Website<\/a><\/p>\n

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Related<\/h1>\n

Related posts:<\/h3>
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Workshop: Climate & the Beginning of the Crisis Decades<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
<\/div>

CHSTM Research Seminar: 10 October 2023<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
<\/div>

Special Seminar: 26 January 2023<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

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