This book concisely examines the use of elasticity in solving geotechnical engineering problems. In a highly illustrated and user-friendly format, it provides a thorough grounding in the linear theory of elasticity and an understanding of the applications. The first two chapters present a basic framework of the theory of elasticity and describe test procedures for the determination of elastic parameters for soils. Chapters 3 and 4 present the fundamental solutions of Boussinesque, Kelvin, and Mindlin, and use these to formulate solutions to problems of practical interest in geotechnical engineering. The book concludes with a sequence of appendices designed to provide the interested student with details of elasticity theory that are peripheral to the main text. Each chapter concludes with a set of questions for the student to answer. The book is appropriate for upper level students in civil engineering and engineering geology.

Sulphide minerals are the important resources of nonferrous metals, which are widely used in many fields such as electronics, chemical engineering, aviation, transportation, construction and metallurgy etc. Flotation technology is the most important method to beneficiate sulphide ores to obtain concentrate containing nonferrous metals since it has been used in industry at the end of the 19th century. As early as in the 1930s-1950s, considerable amount of fundamental research had been conducted on the flotation of sulphide minerals based on wettability, electrokinetics and chemical interactions.

The discovery of electron diffraction in the laboratories of C.J. Davisson and G.P. Thomson in 1927 certainly ranks as one of the monumental discoveries in the history of science. Soon after this invention, it was realised that electrons - like X-rays - are diffracted by the atoms in matter and thus can be used for structure determination. Because the attainable scattered  intensities for electrons are about 106 times larger than for X-rays, electron diffraction allows us to study the interior structure of matter down to a few cubic-nanometers in size. This is far beyond the capabilities of X-ray crystallography or even a modern synchrotron.

Thousands of scholars, professors, teachers, and members of the public have visited the Geological Museum Valentí Masachs, associated with the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) (Polytechnic University of Catalonia) in Manresa (Barcelona, Catalonia), since it opened in June 1980.

The Geological Museum Valentí Masachs is an unconventional one, very different from the traditional type. The exhibition’s main aim is to visualize the connection between human activity and planet Earth (Fig. 1).