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The Essay Cornerstones Episodes

    Clay Bricks

    5/5 Poet Fiona Hamilton contrasts clay's different states, before and after it's baked hard.

    Gypsum and Alabaster

    4/5 Archaeologist Rose Ferraby gets to grips with gypsum, the key mineral in plaster.

    North Sea Oil and Gas

    3/5 Esther Woolfson contrasts Aberdeen, the 'Granite City', with its oil and gas industry.

    Lewisian Gneiss

    2/5 Writer Sara Maitland conjures with Lewisian gneiss, two-thirds the age of the earth.

    Flint

    1/5 Alan Garner sparks with flint, the stone that has enabled human civilisation.