Mary Beard explores what it was really like to be emperor of Rome, taking us behind palace walls to reveal the hidden world of the Roman imperial court and lifestyle.
Deciphering rare surviving inscriptions and imperial-era artefacts, and exploring epic locations, including the imperial palace on Rome's Palatine Hill, Hadrian's vast villa at Tivoli and even the underwater ruins of Claudius's pleasure palace on the Bay of Naples, Mary gives us her unique insights into the emperors' lives behind the scenes: their homes, entourages, sex lives and health.
And she reveals why, ultimately, these most powerful men in the ancient world could be vulnerable to assassination in their own palaces and how with absolute power came absolute paranoia.
Consider how to put your knowledge of geology to use. Issues faced by your community may benefit from geologic insights about groundwater, watersheds, roadways, pollution, and historic questions such as abandoned mines and quarries. Practical geology will only grow in importance as the world deals with climate change, resource shortages, and the pressing need to live in harmony with the planet.
Trace the history of oil exploration and recovery, focusing on the geology of petroleum and natural gas formations. To strike oil, you need to find a source rock, a reservoir rock, a caprock, and a structural feature called a trap where oil can pool. Survey some of the world's most productive oil fields, and investigate the plusses and minuses of hydraulic fracturing, also known as "fracking."
Mining is one of the oldest applications of practical geology. Find out how metals are classified and how most are associated with igneous and metamorphic deposits. Some metals, like gold, can be mined in a pure"nativestate that requires little processing. Discover how and where to go prospecting for gold, using the panning process perfected by the Forty-Niners in California.
Turn to non-foliated metamorphic rocks, those without a distinctive mineral orientation. Investigate the different geologic conditions that create such rocks. Then survey a wide selection, spotlighting their beauty (marble), utility (soapstone), durability (quartzite), and economic value (banded iron formations). Professor Cotter discusses a few of his favorite metamorphic sites.
Metamorphic rocks form under conditions halfway between those of sedimentary and igneous rocks. A good analogy is the process of glacier formation that turns snow into dense, interlocking crystals of ice. Focus on foliated metamorphic rocks, such as slate and gneiss, which have lineation patterns. Geologists can read these patterns to reconstruct ancient mountain ranges and plate boundaries.
Rocks are made up of minerals, which give rocks their immense variety. For example, the mineral quartz has the crystalline clarity of ice, while graphite is opaque and slippery, and pyrite has a metallic sheen. Most rocks are a mix of different minerals. Survey the most common types, analyze their chemistry and molecular structure, and learn how to identify them through a series of simple tests.