JO MARCHANT is a 35-year-old science journalist. A biologist by training, she has a BSc in genetics and a PhD in medical microbiology. She is the author of a five-page feature article on the Antikythera that appeared in Nature alongside the new analysis and dating of the mechanism. Now a freelance writer specializing in science and history, she has worked as an editor on New Scientist and Nature, and written for, among other publications, The Economist and Guardian. She travelled to Athens to see the remains of the Antikythera mechanism and got to know many of the people who have studied it, including Arthur C. Clarke, who supported the book’s publication until the time of his death in March 2008.

Links
Decoding the Heavens website
Antikythera on YouTube

DECODING THE HEAVENS
Solving the Mystery of the World’s Oldest Computer

Shortlisted for the 2009 Royal Society Science Book Prize

Though it is more than 2,000 years old, the Antikythera Mechanism represents a level that our technology did not match until the 18th century, and must therefore rank as one of the greatest basic mechanical inventions of all time. I hope this book will rekindle interest in this artefact, which still remains under-rated – Arthur C. Clarke

The account is sprinkled with the magic dust of an Indiana Jones adventure – NEW SCIENTIST

Will furnish you with a wealth of tell-your-friends-at-dinner-parties type facts. I ended up falling under the Antikythera mechanism’s spell too – James Randerson, GUARDIAN

A fabulous piece of storytelling, thick with plot, intrigue, science, historical colour and metaphysical speculation. The mechanism is fascinating – but the larger question of why its knowledge was lost, and what else with it, is mind-blowing – METRO

Riveting… consistently accessible. A valuable, fast-moving look at the history – and mystery – of the world's first analog computer – starred review, KIRKUS REVIEWS

This globe-trotting, era-spanning mystery should absorb armchair scientists of all kinds – starred review, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

The Antikythera mechanism of ancient Greece has puzzled academics for more than a century after it was rescued from the bed of the Mediterranean, where it had lain since about 80 BC amid the remains of a shipwreck. In November 2006 a major paper on its intricate workings appeared in the international science journal Nature. Revealed as a sophisticated mechanism consisting of dials, pointers and at least thirty interlocking gear wheels, it is unique among remains from the ancient world and nothing close to its complexity appears again for more than a thousand years until the development of astronomical clocks in medieval Europe.

In DECODING THE HEAVENS, Jo Marchant tells for the first time the full story of the quest to decode this amazing mechanism. How did it work? Who could have made it? And how could such a promising technology have disappeared without trace for so long? Only now do we realize that it was in fact an ancient computer that could predict eclipses and track the paths of the sun and the moon through the zodiac, and probably even trace the movements of the five then-known planets.

In part gripping detective story and in part personal testimony, DECODING THE HEAVENS weaves together various times, peoples and places into a book that forces us to revise our view of ancient civilizations, the making of knowledge, and of our own debt to the past. Along the way she unearths a diverse cast of remarkable characters – ranging from Archimedes to Jacques Cousteau – and explores the deep roots of modern technology not only in ancient Greece but in the Islamic world and medieval Europe, too.

Publisher: Heinemann (UK)/Da Capo (US)
Publication: 6 November 2008 (UK)/9 February 2009 (US)
Length: 333 pages

All rights available excluding:
UK & Commonwealth, US, Germany (Rowohlt), Greece (Travlos), Japan (Bungeishunji), Poland (Amber), Taiwan (Goodness Publishing)