phytoplankton and faecal pellets rain down through the ocean

Categories: Comparisons

An example of metphor in science:

"But, then, when the phytoplankton die, and when the zoo plankton defecate and produce faecal pellets, these particles rain down through the ocean, so we call it marine snow because you can imagine it drifting slowly down through the depths to 4000 metres."

Prof. Carol Robinson

Prof. Carol Robinson (Professor of Marine Sciences at the University of East Anglia) was talking on an episode ('Plankton') of BBC's In Our Time

'Marine snow' might be consider a 'dead metaphor' within science as it has come to be used as a technical term.

Mixed metaphor: Should 'marine snow' 'snow down' rather than 'rain down'?

Read about metaphor in science

Read about examples of science metaphors

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.

Author: Keith

Former school and college science teacher, teacher educator, research supervisor, and research methods lecturer. Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the University of Cambridge.