Photo: Giles Laurent, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
How the Stars Have Shaped Humanity
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Drawing from her widely celebrated book, The Human Cosmos, science writer Jo Marchant explores how our intimate relationship with the stars throughout history has shaped our religious beliefs, power structures, scientific advances, art, and even our biology. Marchant tells the epic story of humanity’s long relationship with the heavens—from cave paintings and stone circles to smartphones and space travel—and reveals the crucial role our changing view of the cosmos has played in making us who we are today. She encourages us to rediscover the universe we inhabit and experience the awe-inspiring power of the stars.
Dr. Jo Marchant is an award-winning science journalist and author of several popular science books including The Human Cosmos (2020), which tells the story of humanity’s relationship with the night sky and the universe beyond; Decoding the Heavens (2009), about the century-long race to decipher the ancient Greek Antikythera mechanism; and the New York Times bestseller Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind over Body (2016). She previously worked as a senior editor at New Scientist and at Nature, and her articles have appeared in publications including the New York Times, The Guardian, and Smithsonian magazine.
You may also be interested in Ancient Cosmos: How the Greeks and Romans Saw the Sky on Saturday, October 12.