The storm of scientific and popular interest surrounding the alleged discovery of Homer's Ithaca looks set to continue after Discover magazine declared it one of the most important scientific events of 2005.

In Odysseus Unbound, published in October last year, Kingston businessman Roger Bittlestone claims to have located the ancient island of Ithaca, the homeland of Greek hero Odysseus.

His proposal, backed up by evidence gathered courtesy of NASA technology, that Ithaca is actually to be found on western Kefallonia and is not modern day Ithaki, could be the crucial link between Homer's description of the island and its real location.

Ultimately it could affirm the existence of Homer himself who some scholars believe to be a literary construction.

Such is the importance of Mr Bittlestone's book that Discover magazine, a leading American science publication, has placed it in its top 100 science stories of last year and one of the top three in the category of the history of science.

The other two were the identification of Leonardo da Vinci's workshop in Florence and the sole remaining star chart by Greek astronomer Hipparchus.

Cambridge University press has also ordered a second print run of the book, which reviewers have described as "epoch-making" and "triumphant", after the first 10,000 copies were snapped up in three months.

Mr Bittlestone and his team James Diggle, professor of Greek and Latin at Cambridge and John Underhill, professor of stratigraphy at Edinburgh University, are now planning the next stage of their research which includes conducting a seismic survey and drilling boreholes on Thinia to gather geological evidence. To follow their progress or even get involved in the research go to www.odysseus-unbound.org.