In Decoding the Heavens, Jo Marchant tells for the first time the full story of the hundred-year quest to decipher the ancient Greek computer known as the Antikythera Mechanism. Along the way she unearths a diverse cast of remarkable characters and explores the deep roots of modern technology in ancient Greece and the medieval European and Islamic worlds. At its heart, this is an epic adventure and mystery, a book that challenges our assumptions about technology through the ages.

This is the story of the discovery and subsequent quest to decode the ancient Greek Antikythera mechanism, the world's first computer. Dating from around 70 BC, this artefact was able to predict eclipses and track the paths of the sun and moon through the zodiac, and may even have shown the movements of the five known planets.

A ground-breaking look at the new science behind the mind's surprising ability to heal the body, with advice and tips on how we can all use the latest research to improve our health and our lives

For most of human history, we have had a close relationship with the stars. Once they shaped our religious beliefs, power structures, scientific advances and even our biology. But over the last few centuries we have separated ourselves from the universe that surrounds us. And it comes at a cost. The Human Cosmos is a tour of this history: from the Hall of the Bulls in Lascaux to Tahitian sailors navigating by the stars; from medieval monks grappling with the nature of time to Einstein realising that space and time are the same. It shows we need to rediscover the universe we inhabit, its...