An example of a simile, where a science concept is used to explain a non-scientific concept:
"We are not in a complete trust crisis, trust is in a complete state of decline, it's more that trust is like energy, it's changing form, so, yes, we don't trust institutions, we can talk about lack of trust in politicians, but in many ways, in other areas of our lives, we're way too trusting – if you think about you know how quickly, we swipe, we tap, we make connections on line, we give our trust away quite easily….
It's more powerful to think of trust in directions or flows…so we used to sort of trust upwards, right, we used to trust authorities and experts and CEOs and people in power, and we were quite deferential to that trust, and instead of an upwards flow of trust it's now flowing sideways."
Rachel Botsman
Rachel Botsman (Associate Fellow, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford) was interviewed on the Radio 4 news and current affairs programme 'Today' on 21st March, 2024.
Read about examples of science similes
Many examples of science similes are listed in 'Creative Comparisons: Making Science Familiar through Language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.
