An exmple of teleology in popular science writing:
"Some bits of genetic material exist to make ever more copies of themselves. They can be foreign invaders, such as viruses that enter the genome to commandeer it."
"Barbara McClintock's jumping genes exist to make copies of themselves, much like a cancer cell does."
Neil Shubin
Shubin, N. (2020). Some Assembly Required. Decoding four billion years of life, from ancient fossils to DNA. Oneworld Publications.
Read about teleology in science
Read examples of teleological (pseudo)explanations for scientific phenomena
Read about types of pseudo-explanations
Examples of teleological statements are included in a document listing a wide range of examples of science analogies, similes, metaphors and the like, drawn from diverse sources, which can be downloaded using this link: 'Creative Comparisons: Making Science Familiar through Language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts.'
