An example of an analogy employed in popular science writing:
"If it were possible to have neutrons kick out neutrons and to do it in such a way that each neutron would produce more than one offspring, these particles would multiply like rabbits…or bacteria in infected tissue, and the descendants of one single neutron would soon become sufficiently numerous to attack every single atomic nucleus in a large lump of material. …
"In order to satisfy the condition for progressive breeding it is apparently necessary that out of, say, a hundred neutrons entering into the substance we should get more than a hundred neutrons of the next generation."
George Gamow (1961) One, Two, Three…Infinity. Facts and speculations of science, Revised Edition, Dover Publications, Inc., New York.
Read examples of scientific analogies
Many examples of science analogies are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.
The references to neutrons having offspring and descendants are metaphorical, but align with the analogy to reproduction.
