Decoding the Heavens: A 2,000-Year-Old Computer--and the Century-long Search to Discover Its Secrets - Softcover

PopMatters.com, 4/16/10 "Spirit and fascination fully informs [Marchant's] book" Tucson Citizen, 4/30/10 "[A] highly readable book...An adventure that blends ample portions of fate, historic intrigue, and modern scientific innovation."

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.