A study for interrogating the entanglement of land and sea based scientific exploration and colonial expansion, highlighting how historical data could contribute to current climate science: This study focuses on the following collections:Foraminifera models, created by Alcide d’Orbigny (1802–1857), from the Cockburn Geological Museum Charles Lyell notebooks online at https://lyell.ed.ac.uk/ Challenger Reports on Deep-Sea Deposits, Plate XII. A printed tissue overlay outlines different species of Foraminifera, adding to the visual techniques utilised in Deep-Sea Deposits. This plate was lithographed by Alfonse Renard and George West, London 1891, S.B. F. 5083 Cha. Foraminifera shells hold thousands of years of climate history; they are a time capsule, used by scientists to understand ocean conditions, carbon levels, and global change. Charles Lyell (1797-1875) was fascinated by deep time. His notebooks—now digitised—record fossils, shells, and strata. He helped us see Earth’s history not in centuries, but in epochs. But Lyell’s work and travels were facilitated and shaped by empire - his science, like the shell, is entangled with colonial networks. The Challenger expedition (1872–76) scaled Lyell’s questions to the ocean floor. Collecting data across the globe - Foraminifera among them - they built a global picture of Earth’s systems. But it was a project of empire too: mapping, claiming, extracting knowledge, under colonial flags. All of these collection items are held at the University of Edinburgh and can be accessed through Heritage Collections and the Cockburn Geological Museum. They are not just remnants of the past - they are tools for thinking about the present and shaping a more just and sustainable future. Can we make these collections speak not just of what was, but of what could be? What can we learn from the smallest specimens? How do we read the natural world as data? What can Lyell’s way of observing teach us today? Whose voices - and environments - are missing? What legacies do these scientific expeditions leave behind? Extract from Lyell notebook discussing Foraminifera shells. This article was published on Wednesday 10 June 2026
