Professor Alice Roberts reveals how scientists are unearthing the evidence for cataclysmic events in the past and their disastrous consequences. From wars to earthquakes and floods to famines – these are the events that have helped shape our modern world. In each episode, Alice takes viewers on a journey across Europe and North Africa to discover epic sites and landmarks - fabulous cities abandoned, battlefields long forgotten and sophisticated civilisations toppled and lost to the mists of time. To our ancient ancestors, suffering these catastrophic events, it must have seemed they were cursed but science is now exploding those myths and re-writing history.