Comparisons – Page 26 – Science-Education-Research

Bessemer process was a sort of meteor

An example of a simile in writing about science:

"…the early samples of Bessemer steel were found to exhibit considerable irregularity: the first steel tyres made of the metal, tried on some railways, were found unsafe, and their use was abandoned; and the ironmasters generally, who were of course wedded to he established processes, declared the much-vaunted Bessemer process to be a total failure. It was regarded as a sort of meteor that had suddenly flitted across the scientific horizon, and gone out leaving the subject in more palpable darkness than before."

Cochrane, R. (Ed.). (1897). Heroes of Invention and Discovery. Lives of eminent inventors and pioneers in science. W. P. Nimmo, Hay, & Mitchell.

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latent heat of vaporisation is analogous to latent heat of fusion

An example of how analogy has been used in developing scientific thinking:

"Dr. Black's surmises about the thermometric scale were those of a chemist, studying the nature of fluidity. 

There is such an analogy between the cessation of thermometric expansion, during the liquefaction of ice, and during the conversion of water into steam, that Dr. Black had no sooner explained the first of those anomalies, than he felt in his own mind that all his former conjectures about a variety of phenomena in the boiling, and even in the gentle evaporation of fluids, were well founded; and he was persuaded that in the same manner as ice, in liquefaction, requires the combination of a great quantity of heat, in order to form water, so water, in order to its conversion into steam, also requires another combination with heat, in an unknown proportion. When he considered the slow production of steam, notwithstanding the continued heat of glowing fuel in contact with the vessel….the scalding power of steam….and the great heat raised in the refrigeratory of a still.. ..he was so much convinced of the perfect similarity of Nature's procedure in both cases, that he taught this doctrine, in his lectures in 1761, before he had made a single experiment on the subject; and he explained with great facility of argument, many phenomena of nature which result from this vaporific combination of heat."

Robison, J. (1806), Editor's preface to Joseph Black, Lectures on the elements of chemistry: delivered in the University of Edinburgh.

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ether and chloroform are like a witch's familiars

An example of simile used in public science discourse:

"As to ether and chloroform, they seem like invisible intelligences, doomed to obey [Sir James Simpson's] bidding – familiars who do his work because they must never venture to produce effects one iota greater or less than he desires."

Letter to an Indian newspaper quoted in Cochrane, R. (Ed.). (1897). Heroes of Invention and Discovery. Lives of eminent inventors and pioneers in science. W. P. Nimmo, Hay, & Mitchell.

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scientific research is not like drawing prizes at a lottery

An example of a (negative) simile and an analogy in discussing science:

"…the idea in Davy's mind was, that the alkali was compounded of two ingredients which had severally an attraction for the two opposite poles of the electric current. This idea he never lost sight of throughout the whole course of his experiments, though he repeatedly shifted his ground in regard to the contrivances by which he sought its proof and manifestation. To proceed in any other way would not be to philosophise, but merely, as it were, to dip the hand into the bag of chance in quest of a discovery, as men draw prizes at a lottery. It is true that, until the experiment has confirmed or refuted his [or her] expectations, this guiding idea upon which the experimenter proceeds must be regarded merely as a conjecture. But such a conjecture or hypothesis he [or she] must have in his [or her] mind, or he [or she] is in no condition to set about the inquisition of nature. What progress would the conductor of a trial in a court of justice be likely to make, in questioning a witness, without some previous notion of the truth which the evidence was likely to establish? He [or she] might waste the whole day in putting questions and receiving answers and at last have ascertained nothing. Just as unprofitably would the interrogator of nature spend his time, if he [or she] had no directing anticipation in every case, according to which to order his [or her] experiments. Accident might, it is possible, throw a discovery in his [or her] way; but his [or her] own occupation would be evidently as idle and as little that of a philosopher as the rattling of a dice box."

George L. Craik (1830) Sir Humphrey Davy. in Cochrane, R. (Ed.). (1897). Heroes of Invention and Discovery. Lives of eminent inventors and pioneers in science. W. P. Nimmo, Hay, & Mitchell.

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physical anthropology was smash-and-grab style research

An example of metaphor used to describe research:

"[Beatrice] Blackwood had worked in the field – she toured North America in the mid-1920s collecting anthropological data – but it was not the 'right' kind of anthropological data. While there, she had worked primarily as a physical anthropologist, visiting institutions such as schools, Native American reservations and hospitals, where she measured people's bodies to chart their racial differences.* She covered thousands of miles and visited places for only a week or two at a time.

To her peers in Sydney this was outmoded, even irrelevant, smash-and-grab style research, more concerned with comparative statistics than with a nuanced appreciation of people's everyday habits and beliefs."

Frances Larson (2021) Undreamed Shores. The hidden heroines of British anthropology. London: Granta

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* At this time it was widely believed, even by many scientists, that human beings could be divided into a number of distinct races. This idea has since been shown untenable in the light of the range of evidence available today (e.g., genetic evidence) though it remains a common misconception. [Read 'Who has the right to call someone 'White'?']

anthropology's course was given more precise coordinates

An example of an extended metaphor:

"In the interwar years, Malinowski changed all this. If anthropology was already charting its course as a professional field-based study when he worked in the Trobriand Islands, back at the London School of Economics during the 1920s he set out to determine its coordinates more precisely."

Frances Larson (2021) Undreamed Shores. The hidden heroines of British anthropology. London: Granta

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nineteenth century anthropologists pieced together elaborate jigsaw puzzles

An example of metaphor used to describe science:

"The British scholars who had tackled anthropological questions during the late nineteenth century had relied on travellers' reports, and letters from missionaries and colonial officials stationed abroad, for descriptions of foreign cultures. They collated this evidence at their desks and theorised about the broad brushstrokes of cultural history, piecing together an elaborate jigsaw puzzle using information from many different courses to chart cultural diversity."
Frances Larson (2021) Undreamed Shores. The hidden heroines of British anthropology. London: Granta

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steam engine is a genie under permanent control

I though this paean to the steam engine was work quoting in full. As well as including the metaphors to Genii and being the 'king of' machines, in places the text begins to anthropomorphise the engine (it has talents, and obeys, if it does not tire, sleep or get ill),

"In the present perfect state of the engine it appears a thing almost endowed with intelligence.

It regulates with perfect accuracy and uniformity the number of its strokes in a given time, counting or recording them, moreover, to tell how much work it has done, as a clock records the beats of its pendulum;

it regulates the quantity of steam admitted to work;-

the briskness of the fire;

the supply of water to the boiler;

the supply of coals to the fire;

it opens and shuts its valves with absolute precision as to time and manner;

it oils it joints;

it takes out any air which may accidentally enter into parts which should be vacuous;

and when anything goes wrong which it cannot of itself rectify, it warns its attendants by ringing a bell;

yet with all these talents and qualities, and even when exerting the power of six hundred horses,

it is obedient to the hand of a child;

its aliment is coal, wood, charcoal, or other combustible,

it consumes none while idle,

it never tires, and wants no sleep;

it is not subject go malady when originally made well, and only refuses to work when worn out with age;

it is equally active in all climates, and will do work of any kind;

it is a water-pump, a miner, a sailor, a cotton-spinner, a weaver, a blacksmith, a miller, &c. &c.;

and a small engine, in the character of a steam pony, may be seen dragging after it on a railroad a hundred tons of merchandise, or a regiment of soldiers, with greater speed than that of our fleetest coaches. It is the king of machines, and a permanent realisation of the Genii of Eastern fable, whose supernatural powers were occasionally at the command of man."

A 'recent writer' quoted by George L. Craik (1830), James Watt, in Cochrane, R. (Ed.). (1897). Heroes of Invention and Discovery. Lives of eminent inventors and pioneers in science. W. P. Nimmo, Hay, & Mitchell.

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One would hope that the reporting of the engine obeying the hand of a child was no more than a deduction (if not hyperbole), but given widespread child labour and the absence of health and safety considerations at the time, it may be an observation!

"The Arkwright spinning technology used in mills in the Eastern United States were primarily operated by children. Samuel Slater was one of the first cotton spinning entrepreneurs who helped spread the employment of Arkwright spinning technology throughout New England. Slater and his cotton spinning technology not only established a new system of production, the Rhode Island system, but also sought to use children as the primary operators of Arkwright and steam driven spinning technology."

Stanzione, M. S. (2000) The Diffusion of British Steam Technology and the First Creation of America's First Urban Proletariat, M.A. dissertation, Skidmore College.

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Many examples of anthropomorphism are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.

empirical formula is like a box of Lego bricks

An example of a teaching analogy:

"The word empirical tells us that an empirical formula such as C₂H₆ is not supposed to be a structural diagram of the molecule. It's like a box of Legos. The empirical formula tells you how many Legos of each color there are, but it doesn't tell you what to build with them.

…An empirical formula such as C₂H₆ is not a structural diagram. Think of it as a list of ingredients. It doesn't tell you what to make with them."

John Denker, shared on a chemistry education email list.

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Of itself, the reference to a list of ingredients can be seen as a distinct simile.

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imaging exoplanet is like photographing a firefly that is next to a lighthouse

An example of an analogy used in public science discourse,

"…we will be taking a direct image of our very nearest habitable zone exoplanet, so this is around Proxima Centauri, and to give you an idea of the complexity of the technology and what it needs to achieve, you are trying to find a very small planet that's quite faint, that's next to an extremely bright star. It's the equivalent of trying to take a photograph of a firefly next to the beam of a light house, standing on a ship twenty kilometres away."
Dr Jayne Birkby

Dr Jayne Birkby (Associate Professor of Exoplanetary Sciences at the University of Oxford and Tutorial Fellow in Physics at Brasenose College), was talking on an episode ('The Habitability of Planets') of 'In Our Time'.

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n.b., as the exoplanet is only reflecting light from its star, the comparison could be with a non-luminous fly rather than a firefly.

limbic system and brain stem are subterranean regions

An example of a metaphor used in public science discourse:

"…you get the cortex which is your higher centre, then you've got some of these subterranean regions like the limbic system which does emotion and memory, and the brain stem…"

Dr Jules Montagu (consultant neurologist and author) was talking on an episode of the BBC radio/podcast series 'Dementia: Unexpected Stories of the Mind')

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executive functioning is like air traffic control

An example of an analogy used in public science discourse:

"I often think of executive functioning like air traffic control, so in air traffic control they are trying to land the planes, get them to take off, they are trying to make sure they are filtering out distractions themselves, and that's what executive functioning is, it's multitasking, it is planning, it is strategising, that sort of thing."

Dr Jules Montagu (consultant neurologist and author) was talking on an episode of the BBC radio/podcast series 'Dementia: Unexpected Stories of the Mind')

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