Jo Marchant Ordre des livres (chronologique)

A journey through the history of science and man's relationship with the night sky and the cosmos beyond, from the author of Royal Society Prize-shortlisted Cure.

This annotation offers a rigorous and skeptical examination of the emerging science behind the mind's remarkable capacity to heal the body. It highlights how our mental states can significantly influence physical health, illustrated by everyday experiences like adrenaline surges or salivation at the thought of food. While the negative impacts of stress and anxiety on health are widely acknowledged, the concept of "healing thoughts" has often been dismissed as pseudoscience. However, recent research from various scientific fields reveals that thoughts, emotions, and beliefs can indeed alleviate pain, promote healing, and even combat serious illnesses like heart disease and cancer. The author, an award-winning science writer, travels globally to engage with physicians, patients, and researchers at the forefront of this innovative medical approach. The narrative showcases how meditation can protect against mental decline, the benefits of social connections on longevity, and unique treatments for conditions like PTSD and ADHD. Through compelling stories, including a transplant patient using lavender to soothe his immune system and an Olympic runner enhancing performance via mental focus, the work illustrates the mind's healing potential, its limitations, and practical applications for individuals seeking to harness these insights in their lives.

In 1900 a group of sponge divers blown off course in the Mediterranean discovered an Ancient Greek shipwreck near the island of Antikythera dating from around 70 BC. Lying unnoticed for months amongst their hard-won haul was what appeared to be a formless lump of corroded rock, which turned out to be the most stunning scientific artefact we have from antiquity. For more than a century this 'Antikythera mechanism' - an ancient computer - puzzled academics, but now, more than 2000 years after the device was lost at sea, scientists have pieced together its intricate workings. In Decoding the Heavens, Jo Marchant tells for the first time the story of the 100-year quest to understand the Antikythera mechanism. 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, the Islamic world and medieval Europe.