An example of a metaphor used to explain science:
"Take, for example, the structure of an eye, or of the skeleton of an animal,–what complexity and what artifice! In the one, a pellucid muscle; a lens formed with elliptical surfaces; a circular aperture capable of enlargement or contraction without loss of form. In the other, a framework of the most curious carpentry; in which occurs not a single straight line, nor any known geometrical curve, yet all evidently systematic, and constructed by rules which defy our research."
Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1792 – 1871)
John F. W. Herschel (1830) Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy
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Many examples of science metaphors are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.