An example of a simile* in public science discourse:
"…this [Marfan syndrome] is a potentially fatal disorder, so it was top of the cardiac list of diseases to be investigated, and very clear inheritance. It's passed directly from parent to child with a 50-50 chance, like tossing a 10p piece."
Dr Anne Child
Dr Anne Child (Cardiovascular and Cell Sciences Research Institute, St. George's, University of London, London) was being interviewed by Prof. Jim Al-Khalili for an episode ('Anne Child on Marfan syndrome and love at first sight') of The Life Scientific.
* It might be argued this is more an analogy than a simile, but an analogy should explicitly map across the target and analogue (the coin toss to – meiosis? heads and tails to getting the different copies of the gene).
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.
