Science blog

Summer has arrived but some spring flowers are still around in British Library’s St Pancras site’s Floor 3 Garden. This three-cornered garlic (Allium triquetrum L. 1753) is one of them [1,2]. It was prominent with its white flowers in May and covered half of the terrace’s wild area. Now, when its seeds are in the process of maturation, when its wilting leaves and stalks are lying on other plants and on the ground, they are less noticeable. However, they are worth finding. Something exciting is happening around the three-cornered garlic’s black seeds.

Three-cornered garlic (Allium triquetrum L. 1753), 30-45 cm, in flower on 4 May 2023, Floor 3 Garden, The British Library St Pancras, London Photo: Andrea Deri

The triangular (slightly winged) structure and rather familiar smell of garlic or leek is easy to feel when you roll the stalk of the three-cornered garlic between your fingers. Its Latin name refers to these qualities. The first name, Allium, refers to the onion genus; the second name, its species name within the genus, triquetrum, Latin for triangular in cross-section. 2 May 2023, Floor 3 Garden, The British Library St Pancras, London Photo: Andrea Deri

Three-cornered garlic covered half of the terrace’s wild area. 11 May 2023, Floor 3 Garden, The British Library St Pancras, London Photo: Andrea Deri

The wilting stalk and flowers are resting on other plants and the ground as the seeds are maturing. 25 May 2023, Floor 3 Garden, The British Library St Pancras, London Photo: Methaporn Singhanan

The white shiny oil-containing cap-like appendage on the black seed of the three-cornered garlic, called the elaiosome indicates a mutually beneficial plant-animal relationship [3]: myrmecochory, seed dispersal by ants[4,5].

Both terms, elaiosome and myrmecochory are combinations of Greek words.

Elaiosome: oil-containing appendage on the seed that “attracts” ants.

έλαιον (elaion)  - oil, oily substance[6]

σώμα (soma) – body[7]

Myrmecochory: seed dispersal by ants; literally: dance or movement of ants.

μυρμηξ   μυρμηκος (myrmex, myrmekos) - ant, ants[8]

χoρεια  (choreia) - dance, choral dance with music and also movement of animals[9]

Under the white petals the bulky green fruit encapsulates black seeds with white appendages. 25 May 2023, Floor 3 Garden, The British Library St Pancras, London Photo: Methaporn Singhanan

Wrapped around white petals the translucent green bulky fruit reveals the black seeds inside. 25 May 2023, Floor 3 Garden, The British Library St Pancras, London Photo: Methaporn Singhanan

Having opened the green bulky fruit one of the black seeds with shiny white appendage, the elaiosome, oil containing body, becomes visible. 25 May 2023, Floor 3 Garden, The British Library St Pancras, London Photo: Methaporn Singhanan

Attracted by the elaiosome, ants pick up it up with the seed, which together are often larger than the ants’ body, carry it to their nest, eat and feed their young ants with the nutritious oily tissue of the elaiosome, and then dump the stripped seed away from their nest. 

The elaiosome (white cap on the dark seed) is about the same size as one tooth of a recycled plastic table knife in the canteen. 25 May 2023, Floor 3 Garden, The British Library St Pancras, London Photo: Methaporn Singhanan

The seed and the elaiosome together are about 3-4 mm. 25 May 2023, Floor 3 Garden, The British Library St Pancras, London Photo: Methaporn Singhanan, Andrea Deri

Title page of Rutger Sernander’s (1906) monograph on European myrmecochory. [(P) BX 80 -E(11)]

Both ants and plants benefit from this movement of seeds. Ants profit from the nutritious seasonal food source; the three-cornered garlic is getting its seeds moved to new germinating grounds.

According to a recent study[10] over four percent of known plant species are myrmecochorous, that is, their seed dispersal is facilitated by ants. As an adaptive reproduction strategy myrmecochory appears to have evolved several times in phylogenetically unrelated plants.

Johan Rutger Sernander (1866-1944) [11], a Swedish botanist, published the first monograph on myrmecochory in 1906. The British Library holds a copy of this rare opus. Sernander’s comprehensive work is unique for his field experiments related to several European ant species’ preferences between various plants’ seeds and their elaiosome. The three-cornered garlic was included in the experiments and in the monograph’s splendid illustrations.

Table I Fruits and seeds with elaiosomes of various plant species. 7-8 Three-cornered garlic (Allium triquetrum) in Sernander (1906) [(P) BX 80 -E(11)]

Enlarged image: 7-8 Three-cornered garlic in Table I Fruits and seeds with elaiosomes of various plant species. Sernander (1906) [(P) BX 80 -E(11)]

Table 4 Cross-section of elaiosomes of various plant species under microscope. 135 (bottom-centre) Three-cornered garlic (Allium triquetrum). Note the large oil containing cells. Sernander (1906) [(P) BX 80 -E(11)]

While the three-cornered garlic benefits from myrmecochory it also spreads by bulbs. Furthermore, milder winters due to unfolding climatic changes also facilitate the plant’s expansion. The three-cornered garlic, native to the Mediterranean[12,13] is spreading fast towards the north[14,15]. It is now considered an invasive species in the UK and “it is an offence under Schedule 9 [16] of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in England and Wales to plant or otherwise cause to grow this species in the wild.”

While you can’t grow this species in the wild, you can eat it as much as you like[17]. Unlike ants that eat only the elaiosome, foraging people consume all parts, raw or cooked[18]. 

So, how did the three-cornered garlic find its home on the British Library’s Floor 3 terrace garden? This is an enigma. Certainly not by our gardeners’ intentional planting. Perhaps non-human gardeners, including ants and other animals?

Three-cornered garlic in Camley Street Natural Park, London, 11 May 2023 Photo: Andrea Deri

Having checked all other public green spaces around the British Library in St Pancras in May 2023, three-cornered garlic was not found in the neighbourhood. The nearest place where its blossom and whiff of garlic were impossible to miss was Camley Street Natural Park [19]. Perhaps a visit to Camley Street facilitated the seed dispersal to the British Library in a bit of soil stuck to a pair of shoes or claws? Perhaps other unintentional actions? Anyway, the introduction was successful. Compared to last year (2022), significantly more three-cornered garlic flowered in the British Library Floor 3 garden this year (2023).

Illustration of the ant and the grasshopper in winter from Aesop. ‘Fab. CXXI. The Ant and the Grashopper’. In The Fables of Aesop and Others Translated into English And a Print before Each Fable by Samuel Croxall, D.D. Late Archdeacon of Hereford, The tenth edition carefully revised, and Improved., London: Printed for W. Strahan, J, [and others], 1775. pages 205–206. [Digital Store 1568/8258.]

Many generations have grown up on Aesop’s (d: 564 BC) [20] tale and morals about the ant and the grasshopper.

Dancing ants inspired by myrmecochory by Matthew Waters, 23 May 2023.

I am curious, what counter-stories myrmecochory could inspire about the “dancing” gourmet ants?

Written by Andrea Deri, Cataloguer, British Library

Acknowledgement

Special thanks to Matthew Waters, Manuscript Cataloguer, British Library for drawing dancing ants to illustrate this blog post and inspire counter-stories of Aesop’s classic tale, and Methaporn Singhanan, Chevening Fellow at the British Library 2022-23 for engaging in the exploration of wildlife around the British Library and sharing her photographs.

References [BL shelfmark]

All URLs accessed on 5 June 2023.

[1] Rose, Francis. The wild flower key: How to identify wild flowers, trees and shrubs in Britain and Ireland. Revised and Extended edition. London: Frederick Warne, 2006. pages 514-15 [YK.2007.a.20577]

[2] IPNI. ‘Allium Triquetrum in International Plant Name Index’, 2023. https://www.ipni.org/?q=Allium%20triquetrum

 [3] Jones, Richard. Ants: The Ultimate Social Insects. Vol. 11. British Wildlife Collection. London: Bloomsbury Wildlife, 2022. [ELD.DS.666937]

[4] Morley, Wragge. Ants. Vol. 8. New Naturalist Monograph Series. London: Collins, 1953. [W.P.12018/5., W41/8118, (B) G 65 (F1)]

[5] Brian, M. V. Ants. The New Naturalist. London: Collins, 1977. [(B) G 61,
Document Supply 79/34771]

[6-9] Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, and Henry Stuart Jones. A Greek - English Lexicon …  A New Edition Revised and Augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones [and others] Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961. Page 527, 1749, 1154, 1998 [Open Access Humanities 1 Reading Room HLR 483]

[10] Lengyel, Szabolcs, Aaron D. Gove, Andrew M. Latimer, Jonathan D. Majer, and Robert R. Dunn. ‘Convergent Evolution of Seed Dispersal by Ants, and Phylogeny and Biogeography in Flowering Plants: A Global Survey’. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 12, no. 1 (2010): 43–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppees.2009.08.001. [6428.149200]

[11] Sernander, Rutger. Entwurf einer Monographie der europäischen Myrmekochoren ... Mit 11 Tafeln und 29 Textfiguren, etc. Stockholm, 1906. [(P) BX 80 -E(11)]

[12] Allium triquetrum L. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science

[13] BSBI. ‘Definitions: Wild, Native or Alien?’, 2023. https://bsbi.org/definitions-wild-native-or-alien.

[14] Taylor, I., and K.J. Walker. Three-Cornered Garlic Allium Triquetrum L.  in BSBI Online Plant Atlas 2020. Edited by P.A. Stroh, T.A. Humphrey, R.J. Burkmar, O.L. Pescott, D.B. Roy, and K.J. Walker. Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI), UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Biological Records Centre, 2020. https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.ezp.

[15] Botany in Scotland. ‘Plant of the Week, 27th March 2023 – Three-Cornered Garlic -Allium Triquetrum’. Botany in Scotland (blog), 27 March 2023. https://botsocscot.wordpress.com/2023/03/26/plant-of-the-week-27th-march-2023-three-cornered-garlic-allium-triquetrum/.

[16] UK Government. ‘Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 You Are Here: UK Public General Acts1981 c. 69SCHEDULE 9’, 1981. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/69/schedule/9.

[17] Wild Food UK. ‘Three-Cornered Leek’, 2023. https://www.wildfooduk.com/edible-wild-plants/three-cornered-leek/.

[18] Samangooei, Mina. ‘Individuals Cultivating Edible Plants on Buildings in England’. Oxford Brookes University, 2016. [EThOS DRT 800185]

[19] Camley Street Natural Park | London Wildlife Trust (wildlondon.org.uk)

[20] Aesop. ‘Fab. CXXI. The Ant and the Grashopper’. In The Fables of Aesop and Others Translated into English And a Print before Each Fable by Samuel Croxall, D.D. Late Archdeacon of Hereford, The tenth edition carefully revised, and Improved., London: Printed for W. Strahan, J, [and others], 1775. Pages 205–206. [Digital Store 1568/8258.]

What’s going on in the British Library at night? A creamy-brown mottled feather with a broken quill might shed light on some unexpected activities.

A feather

A feather was spotted on a sunny crisp lunch break walk on 15 February 2023. [Fig. 1, 2]

Figure 1 Feather found on 15 February 2023 in the ‘moss-garden”, The British Library St Pancras, London Photo: Andrea Deri

Figure 2 Feather (under side) found on 15 February 2023 in the ‘moss-garden”, The British Library St Pancras, London Photo: Andrea Deri

The feather lay on the moss carpet of the second-floor terrace garden, behind the Barbara Hepworth sculpture and the pergola of the British Library (BL) St. Pancras site under a four-floor high wall [Fig. 3, 4]. The wall may hold the key to the enigmatic feather. [Fig. 5].

Figure 3 Feather in situ, see the yellow dot, found on 15 February 2023 in the ‘moss-garden”, The British Library St Pancras, London. Photo: Andrea Deri

Figure 4 ‘Moss garden’ behind the Barbara Hepworth sculpture and the pergola of the British Library (BL) St. Pancras site under a four-floor high wall, London

Figure 5 High wall above the ‘moss garden’, The British Library St Pancras, London.

The shady moss-garden is one of the least exposed public green areas in the BL [Fig. 6].

Figure 6 ‘Moss-garden’, see the yellow dot, Google map (23 March 2023).

Compared with reliably identified woodcock feathers from a bird found dead in a private garden a couple of years ago, our feather showed striking similarities. But it was just hard to imagine what a woodcock would be doing on the BL Floor Two. Woodcocks are elusive nocturnal woodland birds with a preference for the area between forests and fields [1]

It’s a woodcock!

Having contacted the Angela Marmont Centre for the UK Biodiversity at the Natural History Museum in London (AMC-NHM), the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) https://www.rspb.org.uk/ and experienced London-based naturalists, we got confirmation that the feather indeed belonged to a woodcock (Scolopax rusticola Linnaeus, 1758). [Fig. 7]

Figure 7 Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) with chick in J.A. Naumann 1902 Unsere Schnepfen.

It is an exciting thought that woodcocks might be around the British Library.

In addition to expert knowledge, we also received helpful resources: a reference image of woodcock feathers; link to Featherbase, a website where exhibits of feathers of a range of species can be studied, several blog posts, and recommendation of a book: Tracks and Signs of the Birds of Britain and Europe [2]

But what would a woodcock be doing on the BL Floor Two?

The 18th century Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant started the description of woodcocks in his British Zoology (1776) [3] with discussion of their migration, as if it were their most important feature [Fig. 8, 9, 10]:

“These birds during summer are inhabitants of the Alps, of Norway, Sweden, Polish, Prussia, the march of Brandenburg, and the northern parts of Europe: they all retire from those countries the beginning of winter, as soon as the frost commence; which force them into milder climates, where the ground is open, and adapted to their manner of feeding.“ [3]

Figure 8 Cover of Thomas Pennant 1776 British Zoology

Figure 9 First page of the Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) chapter in Thomas Pennant 1776 British Zoology page 365.

Figure 10 Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) in Thomas Pennant 1776 British Zoology page 364 Plate XV No. 178.

Pennant did not mention woodcocks in London.

Pennant’s book is part of the King’s Library collection in the British Library. The style of binding is called ‘Tree calf’; an acidic mixture is applied to the leather to create the effect.  The coat of arms could have been added at any time – as we learned from Philippa Marks and John Goldfinch, Curators of Bookbinding. Descriptions of the books and pamphlets in the King's Library (shelved in specific shelfmark ranges: 1.a.1 – 304.k.23 and C.1.a.1 – C.16.i.16) appear in Explore the British Library. Most volumes can be ordered into the Rare Books and Music Reading Room using Explore.

Late 19th century bird books, including the ‘London Birds and Beasts’ already made reference to woodcocks in London [4, 5, 6]:

“In the autumn and early winter woodcocks often drop in town [London] sometimes in most extraordinary places, the overhead wires being in many cases, no doubt, accountable for their appearance.” [5]

The 21st century ‘London Bird Atlas’ features high numbers of woodcock observations plotted on a London map [7].

Most woodcocks in London are winter visitors, arriving in Britain and Ireland between October- December from their breeding sites in the north including Scandinavia, Finland and Russia (from as far as Siberia) [8]. The Eurasian woodcocks’ migration routes and timing is explored by Woodcock Watch organised by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust by tagging individual birds.

Migration is a high-risk activity for these birds. In addition to being hunted in large numbers, they can be blown off-course and drowned during storms when crossing the sea. Woodcocks can also starve when they cannot replenish their energy if the soil freezes over and they cannot access their food: worms, soil-dwelling insects [Fig. 11].

Figure 11 Hungry woodcocks (Scolopax rusticola) feeding on earthworms in L. H. De Visme Shaw 1903 Snipe and woodcock. Page 193.

Their feeding habit is captured in the woodcock’s Romanian name: sitar (from the noun sită: colander, sieve). Sitar can be translated as ‘colander maker’. In this case, it refers to the birds making the ground look like a colander, full of holes, as they poke the soil in search of worms – explained Florin Feneru, Identification and Advisory Officer, at the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity, The Natural History Museum.

With the increase of tall buildings in London (and other cities), especially with glass windows that woodcocks might perceive as water bodies and fly directly towards them, the exhausted migrating birds can get disoriented and collide with walls when they fly over at night [9, 10]. Predation poses additional hazards: peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) have been spotted on live web camera attacking woodcocks during the peak migration time, November – December [11].

Scenarios

So, back to the question: How would a woodcock end up in an urban ‘hanging’ garden and disappear with only one broken feather left behind?

Most probably, this was a migrant woodcock, flying over the BL St Pancras site at night. The circumstances of the ill-fated flight are not known but two of several possible scenarios are described here: collision and predation by peregrine.

Collision

The unfortunate woodcock might have collided with the tall wall of the BL [Fig. 5] when it was flying over central London at night on its migration from the breeding sites in the north. After the collision, the bird might have dropped to the moss garden where a fox (Vulpes vulpes) found it, grabbed it, leaving one broken feather behind, then hurried away with its ‘take-away’.

Predation

A peregrine (Falco peregrinus) could have captured the woodcock and torn it apart while sitting on the high wall ledge above the moss garden. One of the broken feathers of the fast feast made its way down to the moss-carpet.

Both foxes and peregrines have been spotted around the BL St Pancras site. The break on the quill could not have happened by the impact of a fallen bird or its feather but more likely by active force.

When did the feather get separated from the bird?

The woodcock feather was found on 15 February 2023. But it is not known when the feather landed in the place where it was found, the time of the woodcock’s demise. As the majority of continental woodcocks leave the UK during late February and early March to breed [10, 12] the woodcock could have perished either in the autumn or an early homebound flight in the spring migration.

The significance of the feather: monitoring urban wildlife for wildlife-inclusive cities

Wildlife monitoring benefits from citizen science, also referred to as community science. The woodcock feather identification engaged both citizen scientists and professional ornithologists. The feather story generated a peer-reviewed observation, uploaded to iRecord, a UK citizen science biodiversity monitoring tool. iRecord feeds into the National Biodiversity Atlas, a source of evidence for decision making about the natural environment. We hope observations like our woodcock feather will ultimately contribute to evidence-based wildlife-inclusive urban development [13]

The collaboration of libraries, museums, conservation charities and citizen scientists presents a so far under-utilised approach to wildlife conservation. The quick and generous response to our feather query from AMC-NHM, RSPB, and London-based naturalists [Fig. 12] shows the professional strengths of UK wildlife monitoring and conservation networks. With growing urban development and increasing complexities of human-wildlife interactions, monitoring urban wildlife is ever more important [14].

Figure 12 Woodcock in Norfolk at night with flash, January 2023. Photo: Henry Wyn-Jones. Published with permission.

Starts with a walk

The British Library’s remarkable collections are widely known. Yet, the wonders of the Library’s wildlife habitats are under-appreciated. They are here to be discovered for their fabulous biodiversity in addition to provide us with beautiful background. It all starts with a curious walk. The walk becomes a journey of discovery. Curiosity connects wildlife, collections, and people.

Written by Andrea Deri and Greg Smith

Acknowledgement
We would like to thank to Florin Feneru, Identification and Advisory Officer, Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity, The Natural History Museum, London; Hein van Grouw, Senior Curator, Bird Group, Dept. of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Tring; India James, Supporter Adviser, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK Headquarters The Lodge Sandy; Philippa Marks, Curator, Bookbindings, Western Heritage Collections, The British Library; John Goldfinch, former Curator, Printed Heritage Collections, Western Heritage Collections, The British Library ; Huw Rowlands, Map Processing Coordinator and Cataloguer, India Office Records Map Collection, The British Library; Henry Wyn-Jones, ecologist, ornithologist, wildlife photographer.

References, links and further readings [BL shelfmark]

[1] Davis, J., 2023. European woodcocks have the brightest feathers known to exist. Available at: <https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2023/march/european-woodcocks-have-the-brightest-feathers-known-to-exist.html>.

[2] Brown, R., Ferguson, J., Lawrence, M. and Lees, D., 2021. Tracks & signs of the birds of Britain & Europe. Helm identification guides. London Oxford New York New Delhi Sydney: Bloomsbury Wildlife. page 511 [ELD.DS.659867]

[3] Pennant, T., 1776. British Zoology. London: Printed for Benj. White. page 365 [40.d.10-13]

[4] Dixon, C., 1909. The bird-life of London. London: Willam Heinemann. [7285.e.29]

[5] Tristram-Valentine, J.T., 1895. London Birds and Beasts. London. page 252 [720e.bb.20]

[6] Swann, H.K., 1893. The birds of London. London. page 103-104 [7285.b.5]

[6] Woodward, I.D., Arnold, R. and Smith, N., 2017. The London bird atlas. [London], Oxford: London Natural History Society?; John Beaufoy Publishing. page 168 [YKL.209.b.1828]

[7] RSPB, 2023. Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola). [online] Available at: <https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/woodcock/>.

[8] RSPB, 2018. Danger low flying woodcock. Available at: <https://www.rspb.org.uk/about-the-rspb/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/danger-low-flying-woodcock/>.

[9] Hoodless, A.N., Heward, C.J. and Williams, O., 2020. Migration and movements of Woodcocks wintering in Britain and Ireland. British Birds, 113, pp.256–278.

[10] Davies, E. and Hendry, L., 2022. Peregrine falcons are the top birds in town. Available at: <https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/peregrine-falcons-and-their-city-success.html>.

[11] Hoodless, A., 2002. Eurasian Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola). In: C. Wernham, ed. The migration atlas: movements of the birds of Britain and Ireland, Repr. 2008. London: T & A D Poyser. pp.319–322. [(B) GC 32]

[12] Kay, C.A.M., Rohnke, A.T., Sander, H.A., Stankowich, T., Fidino, M., Murray, M.H., Lewis, J.S., Taves, I., Lehrer, E.W., Zellmer, A.J., Schell, C.J. and Magle, S.B., 2022. Barriers to building wildlife-inclusive cities: Insights from the deliberations of urban ecologists, urban planners and landscape designers. People and Nature, [online] 4(1), pp.62–70. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10283.

[13] Gaston, K.J. and Evans, K.L., 2010. Urbanization and development. In: N. Maclean, ed. Silent summer: the state of wildlife in Britain and Ireland. Cambridge?; New York: Cambridge University Press.[YK.2010.a.19902]

Birdwatch Magazine [2092.507500]

Birdwatch Monthly [2092.507800]

Hoodless, A. N., 1994. Aspects of the ecology of the European woodcock (Scolopax rusticola L.) [uk.bl.ethos.385917]

Our current flagship exhibition on our St Pancras site is “Animals: Art, Science and Sound”, covering how the animals sharing our planet with us have been depicted, recorded and investigated by humans. It runs from 21^st April to 28^th August 2023.

Wildlife is widely represented in the British Library’s remarkable collections.

Yet, wildlife living around the British Library often goes unnoticed and unappreciated.

Wild BL, a series of blog posts, will highlight a range of life forms that live and occasionally move around the British Library’s sites in St Pancras, London and Boston Spa, Yorkshire.

The aim of the series is to inspire new approaches to the ways wildlife and people can thrive together in both cities and in the countryside.

Wild BL will feature what’s going on around the British Library at night and during the day in various wildlife habitats and highlight some of the resources about these wild activities in various British Library collections.

The blog posts are authored by British Library members of staff.  Each story reveals where wildlife can be encountered in public areas, so more people can notice and enjoy the presence of various fellow creatures living around the British Library.

Blog readers are encouraged to share their observations in iRecord, a peer-reviewed biodiversity monitoring community-science initiative that connects individual sightings with the National Biodiversity Network. The National Biodiversity Network provides planners and policy makers with evidence for taking biodiversity into consideration in decisions.

By linking wildlife, collections and people, the blog contributes to the British Library’s activities in addressing the biodiversity and climate crises.

Written by Andrea Deri

(Photograph by Tony Antoniou)

The COP26 conference in Glasgow has ended, but the real work of reducing carbon emissions must now begin. The science staff and the British Library Green Network have created a collection guide now available on our website, which includes key items to provide information on the problems and potential solutions.

The guide includes books, journals and online databases that you can only access within the British Library if you have a Reader Pass, but there are also many links to trustworthy websites that contain a wealth of information on climate change, the Earth's climate, and the wider issues.

We will be keeping it up to date so that it will continue to be useful into the future.

A page from "Tsurat ha-arets"

Our Hebrew manuscripts exhibition continues until next year. You might not expect it to have a whole section on science, the prize of which is the manuscript numbered Or 10721, a copy of Tsurat ha-arets ("Form of the Earth") by Abraham bar Hiyya, with some additional works. It is thought to have been transcribed in the 15th century by one Joseph ben Se’adyah Ibn Hayyim. It is fully digitised at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=or_10721_fs001r.

Or 10721 was purchased in 1924 by the British Museum Library from the Romanian-British Jewish scholar, and Chief Rabbi of the English Sephardic community, the Rev. Moses Gaster, as part of a large collection known as the "Gaster Manuscripts". Bar Hiyya (1070?-1136) lived in Barcelona during the period of Moorish rule in 11th-12th centuries and was considered the foremost scientific authority of any background in Spain at the time. He probably introduced Arabic algebra into Middle Ages Europe, and his work was key to Fibonacci's introduction of the Hindu-Arabic number system into Christian Medieval Europe, which allowed modern maths to begin there. He published the first general solution of quadratic equations and wrote the oldest known mathematical work on the Hebrew calendar. His book Hegyon ha-Nefesh is considered to be the oldest surviving book on philosophy in the Hebrew language. Outside his scholarly studies, he held the government legal position "sahib al-shurta" of the Taifa of Zaragoza, a kingdom of the era that ruled a large part of Eastern Spain.

Bar Hiyya was the first major figure of Jewish scholarship to use Hebrew rather than Judeo-Arabic for scientific works. He developed a new vocabulary for science in the language and translated many existing Arabic scientific works into Hebrew, to improve what he considered to be the very poor state of mathematical knowledge among Spanish and French Jews of the era.

Tsurat ha-arets is a treatise on cosmology and geography describing the Ptolomaic or Earth-centred view of the universe, generally accepted in Middle Ages Europe. It also describes the division of the known northern hemisphere into seven "climates", or regions divided by east-west lines of latitude.

An earlier post on our Collection Care blog has described the most recent conservation of the manuscript.

Further reading:

Medieval Jewish civilization : an encyclopedia / edited by Norman Roth. London : Routledge, 2017. Available electronically in British Library reading rooms as Non-Print Legal Deposit.

Your experience of the COVID-19 pandemic could be an important contribution to science. Researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds are keen to learn about your stories, insights, routines, thoughts and feelings. While some projects would be eager to receive diaries in the narrative style of Samuel Pepys or John Evelyn, others want more specific information in survey format.

Illustration: Graham Newby, The British Library: Lockdown Rooms (3rd June 2020)

Citizen science engages self-selected members of the public in academic research that generates new knowledge and provides all participants with benefits. The engagement can vary from data gathering or participatory interpretation to shared research design. Different forms of citizen science can be referred to as public science, public participation in scientific research, community science, crowd-sourced science, distributed engagement with research and knowledge production, or trans-disciplinary research that integrates local, indigenous and academic knowledge.

Contributing to citizen science projects sustains a sense of control, sense of belonging (empowering feelings in and after isolation) and sense of being useful which are particularly important in uncertain times. According to the UK Environment Observation Framework, self-measured evidence is more trusted by people, and organisations that draw on data generated through citizen science are more trusted. Trust is linked to transparency. Better understanding of how scientific knowledge is produced, and having a role and responsibility in shaping the knowledge production process, are likely to enable citizen scientists to re-frame the often-uneasy relationship between society and science.

Scale is a distinctive feature of citizen science. The more people are engaged, the more comprehensive an understanding can be reached about the researched topic. The featured COVID-19 Symptom Study has become the largest public science project in the world in a matter of weeks:  3,881,488 citizen scientists are involved as of 18th June 2020. Big data allowed medics to develop an artificial intelligence diagnostic that can predict the likelihood of having COVID-19 based on the symptoms only: a vital tool indeed when testing is limited.

The citizen science initiatives highlighted here, COVID-19 Symptom Study, COVID-19 and You, and COVID Chronicles, may inspire you to contribute to them or find other projects where you can take an active role in developing better understanding of current and future epidemics.

COVID-19 Symptom Study
https://COVID.joinzoe.com/data
Epidemiology
Institutions: King's College London, ZOE
Launched: 25th March 2020
Your contribution helps you and researchers understand COVID-19 and the dynamics of the pandemic (UK, USA).
How: Submit your physical health status regularly.

COVID-19 and You
https://nquire.org.uk/mission/COVID-19-and-you/contribute
Social sciences
Institutions: The Open University, The Young Foundation
Launched: 7th April 2020
Your contribution helps you and researchers understand how COVID-19 is affecting households and communities across the world.
How: Fill in an online survey with choices and narratives.

In addition to supporting current research, your contribution could add to future inquiries as well. Collecting and archiving short personal stories ensures authentic data will be available when researchers in the future look back to us now with their research questions. Reliable data should be collected now, while we are still living in unprecedented times. It is especially important to record the experiences of people from less privileged backgrounds, in contrast to earlier pandemics where the voices of all but the upper and middle classes, and the political, legal and scholarly elite, have often been lost to history. COVID Chronicles, an archival initiative, is doing just that. COVID Chronicles is a joint project: BBC 4 PM collects and features some of the stories and The British Library archives them all for future academic inquiries.

COVID Chronicles
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52487414
History, social sciences
Institutions: BBC Radio 4, The British Library
Launched: 30th April 2020
Your contribution helps you and future researchers understand how people experience the COVID-19 pandemic in their daily life, at a personal level.
How: Submit a mini-essay (about 400 words) to BBC Radio 4 PM via e-mail: pm at bbc dot co dot uk. Your essay will be archived by The British Library and made available for future research.

The gradually easing lockdown and the anticipated long journey of national and global recovery generate a growing appetite to record, reflect on and analyse the COVID-19 epidemic's influence on our life. Not all "citizen science" projects observe high standards of privacy and ethical responsibility, however. Before joining in any research with public participation, consider the principles of citizen science suggested by the European Citizen Science Association and the questions below:

Five questions before joining a citizen science initiative

1. Can you contact the researchers and the institution(s) they belong to with your questions and concerns?
2. Is the research approach clear to you? In order words, is it clear to you what happens to your contribution, how it shapes the investigation and what new knowledge is expected?
3. Is your privacy protected? In other words, is the privacy policy clear to you, including how you can opt out any time and be sure that your data are deleted?
4. Are you contacted regularly about the progress of the research you are contributing to?
5. Are you gaining new transferable skills, new knowledge, insights and other benefits by participating in the research?

Further reading:

Bicker, A., Sillitoe, P., Pottier, J. (eds) 2004. Investigating Local Knowledge: New Directions, New Approaches. Aldershot : Ashgate.
BL Shelfmark YC.2009.a.7651, Document Supply m04/38392

Citizen Science Resources related to COVID-19 pandemic (annotated list) https://www.citizenscience.org/COVID-19/
[Accessed 18th June 2020]

Curtis, V. 2018. Online citizen science and the widening of academia: distributed engagement with research and knowledge production. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Available as an ebook in British Library reading rooms.

Open University. 2019. Citizen Science and Global Biodiversity  (free online course) https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/citizen-science-and-global-biodiversity/content-section-overview?active-tab=description-tab
[Accessed 18th June 2020]

Sillitoe, P. (ed). 2007. Local science vs global science: approaches to indigenous knowledge in international development. New York : Berghahn Books.
BL Shelfmark YC.2011.a.631, also available as an ebook in British Library reading rooms.

Written by Andrea Deri, Science Reference Team

Contributions from Polly Russell, Curator, COVID Chronicles, and Phil Hatfield, Head of the Eccles Centre for American Studies, are much appreciated.

Image by danielfoster437 under a CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0 license

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to dominate news and lock down our daily lives, most of the major academic publishers have agreed to make their relevant articles available free online, even if they would otherwise be published with a paywall. Here is a set of links to various publisher sites, whether you are working on it yourself or looking for something to pass the time with.

American Chemical Society

American College of Physicians

Brill

British Medical Journal

Cambridge University Press

Cell Press

Chinese Medical Association

Elsevier

Emerald

European Respiratory Society

F1000

Frontiers

Future Science Group

Healthcare Infection Society

IEEE

IET

Informa Pharma Intelligence

Institute of Physics

Journal of the American Medical Association

Karger

The Lancet

National Academy of Sciences

New England Journal of Medicine

Oxford University Press

Royal Society

SAGE

Science

Springer Nature

Wiley

Wolters Kluwer

The first page of the letter from Caroline Herschel on display in the Treasures Gallery

Happy birthday Caroline Herschel!

Today is the 270th anniversary of the birth of the German-born British astronomer Caroline Herschel, who discovered eight comets and fourteen nebulae. She also produced an expansion and correction of the previous main British star catalogue, created in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century by John Flamsteed, and made substantial contributions to the catalogue of nebulae and star clusters published after her death by her nephew John F W Herschel. She made heavy contributions as well to the work of her elder brother William Herschel, famous as the discoverer of Uranus.

Caroline Hershel was born in 1750 in Hannover in Germany, the daughter of a military musician. As the youngest daughter of her family, it was assumed by convention at the time that she would devote her life to helping her mother maintain the home and look after her father and elder brothers, which she resented. Her escape from this came when her brother William invited her to move to England and join him in Bath, where he was working in the family tradition as a musician. Caroline became a promising singer, but when her brother shifted his interests from music to astronomy he assumed once again that she would naturally help him in his own career. Over the years, despite this unwilling beginning, she became genuinely enthusiastic for the subject. In 1782, William was appointed Royal Astronomer by George III (not to be confused with the older position of the Astronomer Royal at Greenwich) and the pair moved to Datchet near Slough, to be closer to the royal home at Windsor. In 1787, William pursuaded the King to pay Caroline a salary in her own right, making her the first woman in Britain to be employed as a scientist.

The work was not just intellectual but physically demanding. William and Caroline had to construct their own telescopes and spend hours in the open air at night making observations. William's telescopes were some of the largest in the world at the time, being from twenty to forty feet in length. On one occasion, Caroline fell and impaled her leg on part of a telescope, losing a two ounce lump of flesh and suffering an injury which a military surgeon later told her would have entitled a soldier to six weeks spent in an infirmary.

Caroline's contributions have traditionally been undervalued due to a mixture of her personal shyness (coupled with disdain for people who she considered intellectually inferior) and her willingness to publicly depict herself as merely a submissive helpmeet to her brother, to avoid controversy, which were played up by subsequent commentators who wanted to depict her as conventionally feminine. Letters to her family which we hold here at the BL reveal her as a rather more strong-willed person, with a sardonic sense of humour.

After William's death in 1822, Caroline moved back to Hannover, where the position of her home in the centre of the city prevented her from much astronomical observation. In response, she devoted herself to compiling the catalogue of nebulae and star clusters. She died in 1848, increasingly physically frail in her later years but mentally sharp until the end.
We hold three copies of the first edition of Caroline Herschel's catalogue of stars, at the shelfmarks L.R.301.bb.2, 59.f.4, and B.265. The copy at L.R.301.bb.2 bears the bookplate of Charles Frederick Barnwell, at one time assistant keeper of antiquities at the British Museum, and is bound with a copy of the star catalogue of Francis Wollaston, another astronomer of the same era.

The letter from Caroline Herschel currently displayed in the Treasures Gallery is taken from the section of the Charles Babbage papers dealing with astronomy, Add MS 37203. It is a copy of a letter originally sent to Nevil Maskelyne, the Astronomer Royal of the era, who was one of the few friends who Caroline was comfortable enough with to make an extended visit to. Her letters to close relatives while living in Hannover, which show a more outspoken side to her, are found at Egerton MS 3761 and Egerton MS 3762. The "Egerton" refers to the fact that they were purchased by the British Museum Library with money from an endowment created specifically to acquire manuscripts in the bequest of Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater.

Further reading:
Brock, C. The comet sweeper. Thriplow: Icon, 2007. Shelfmark YC.2008.a.3165, also available as e-book in the British Library Reading Rooms.
Hoskin, M. Herschel, Caroline Lucretia (1750-1848). In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/13100. Available online in British Library Reading Rooms.
Winterburn, E. The quiet revolution of Caroline Herschel. Stroud: The History Press, 2017. Shelfmark YK.2018.a.6511, also available as e-book in the British Library Reading Room