Jo Marchant

Jo Marchant is a science journalist and author based in London. She trained as a scientist and has a PhD in genetics and medical microbiology from St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College in London, and an MSc in Science Communication from Imperial College London.

Jo has worked as an editor at New Scientist and at Nature and has written on topics from the future of genetic engineering to underwater archaeology. Her articles have appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Guardian and Smithsonian magazine, and on websites such as Mosaic and TheAtlantic.com.

Her radio and TV appearances include BBC Radio 4's Start the Week and Today programmes, NPR's Fresh Air, CNN and National Geographic. She has lectured around the world, including at the Royal Institution in London, the Hay Festival, the Edinburgh Science Festival, the Getty Villa in Los Angeles, the Aspen Ideas Festival and the Dutch-Flemish Institute in Cairo.

Jo is author of Decoding the Heavens: Solving the Mystery of the World's First Computer, shortlisted for the 2009 Royal Society Prize for Science Books; The Shadow King: The Bizarre Afterlife of King Tut's Mummy (2013); and the New York Times bestseller Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body (2016). Her most recent book is 2020's The Human Cosmos: A Secret History of the Stars.