Science blog

On the evening of 26 June, the British Library was abuzz with discussion of issues surrounding the plight of the humble bee. This was our 21st event in the Science Team’s popular café scientifique series, TalkScience. “Pollinators and pesticides: is there a plan bee?” brought together scientists, policymakers and representatives from industry, along with the general public (many of them beekeepers), for a lively debate about the pressures facing bees and other wild insect pollinators.

Bee and pesticide discussions held at the British Library. Bee image © Photos.com photo Eric Isselée.

BBC presenter and beekeeper, Bill Turnbull, chaired the panel comprising Dr David Aston (British Beekeepers Association), Dr Peter Campbell (Syngenta) and Dr Lynn Dicks (University of Cambridge), who expressed a diverse range of views on the decline of insect pollinators and the effects of pesticides on bees. While some research suggests pesticides do have a detrimental effect on bee populations, the issue, as we heard, is far from clear-cut; land-use, diseases and poor weather conditions also contribute to the decline in numbers.

Lee-Ann Coleman (British Library science team) introduces the panel. L-R: Bill Turnbull (BBC), David Aston (BBKA), Lynn Dicks (University of Cambridge) and Peter Campbell (Syngenta). Photo: Peter Warner

The BBC Horizon team filmed the event as part of an upcoming programme on demystifying the issues impacting bees.  As well as highlighting the discussion from various experts to demonstrate the complexity of the issue, they wanted to reflect public concern for the plight of the bee. The BBC Horizon programme, which will likely contain clips from our TalkScience event, will be broadcast on Friday 2 August at 21.00, after Springwatch.

TalkScience being filmed for the first time by BBC Horizon. Photo: Peter Warner

As a result of this TalkScience event, the Science Team is exploring how to make the British Library more bee-friendly. Please let us know about success stories from other public or city buildings that have made a bee-friendly transition, whether it’s planting more flowers or hosting hives of their own. And we'll report back on our own experiences.

A potential idea of how to use books as solitary bee homes at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Photo: Alec Finlay http://www.the-bee-bole.com/

Following on from TalkScience, lively discussion continues via the blog posting of beekeeper Emily Heath, who attended the event. Lynn Dicks, one of our panellists, also summarised her four key action points to protect bees and other wind insect pollinators after TalkScience, and in preparation for the Bee Summit.

Audience members discussing pollinators and pesticides during the TalkScience interval. Photo: Peter Warner.

The event was organised by the Science Team with significant contribution from our PhD student intern, Stuart Smith. Stuart has spent three months with us through a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) funded policy placement. Next week read about his un-bee-lievable placement at the British Library.

Stuart Smith and Johanna Kieniewicz

Welcome to our brand new Science blog bought to you by the Science Team at the British Library. We hope to inform, inspire and surprise you as we highlight the work that we do and the things that interest us. We’re also keen to hear what interests you, so please let us know and we’ll try to cover it.

Before the science bit, comes the history bit… The British Library is distinctive in many ways and one of its unexpected aspects is that, unlike many other national libraries, we cater for science, as well as the humanities. In fact, this remit was written into the British Library Act (1972) when a number of separate institutions, including the National Reference Library of Science and Invention and the National Lending Library for Science and Technology, were brought together to create 'a national centre for reference, study, and bibliographic and other information services, in relation both to scientific and technological matters and to the humanities'. They finally merged physically when the St Pancras building opened in 1998.

Although the public may be less aware of the role that the British Library plays in science, many people needing access to scientific information make extensive use of our two Science Reading Rooms in London. We also offer access to scientific articles through our document supply service. But we do much more than that.

The Science Team is working on providing scientific information to more people, wherever they are. We have done quite a bit of research ourselves to understand how contemporary researchers discover and use information, not only to enhance our existing provision but to develop new services. We have been involved in Europe PubMed Central since 2006 – providing access to millions of biomedical research articles for free. We are also developing a resource – called Envia - for environmental scientists interested in flooding, which provides free access to relevant resources. Scientific data is generated in increasingly large volumes and discovering and accessing it requires new methods of gathering that information and pointing people in the right direction. The Science Team has been cataloguing datasets to make them more discoverable and is also delivering the UK DataCite service which enables datasets to be cited. While providing access to information is our core business, the British Library also has a fantastic space where scientists, researchers and the public can meet, debate issues and be challenged by new ideas. Our TalkScience events have a loyal following and we celebrate science with an annual public events programme called Inspiring Science. Next year will see a science-themed exhibition at the Library – called Beautiful Science – exploring scientific data visualisation from past to present. We’ll be keeping you updated about plans and progress on that.

Science permeates every aspect of our lives but you don’t have to wear a lab coat to be a scientist. By having curiosity and asking questions about the world, ourselves, where we’ve come from and what the future might hold is to think scientifically. Of course having access to trusted information helps us to understand what is already known and where the boundaries lie and what remains to be discovered. We hope that you will discover some new information in our blog posts, ask questions, make requests and use the resources that our experts highlight to explore new horizons.

You can expect to hear from us weekly so look out for our next post and follow us on Twitter for more frequent news, information and resources – @ScienceBL

Lee-Ann Coleman