Comparisons – Page 28 – Science-Education-Research

petrified trees were like Lot's wife

An example of simile in scientific writing:

"In an escarpement of compact greenish sandstone I found a small wood of petrified trees…The sandstone consists of many horizontal layers, and is marked by the concentric lines of the bark (I have a specimen). Eleven are perfectly silicified, and resemble the dicotyledonous wood which I found at Chiloe and Concepcion: the others, thirty to thirty-four in number, I only know to be trees from the analogy of form and position; they consist of snow-white columns (Like Lot's wife) of coarsely crystalized carbonate of lime. The largest shaft is seven feet."

Charles Darwin, 1835, letter to Prof. John Stevens Henslow.

The purposes of simile is offer a comparison to aid communication. Darwin would have been confident that Henslow (and anyone else he shared the letter with) would, although never having seen Lot's wife, be very familiar with the story, and have a image of her as a pillar of salt. Today, this would be less certain. (Anyone not aware of the fate of Lot's wife will find a brief account in The sins of scientific specialisation).

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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.

learning to read X-rays is picked up by osmosis

An example of a scientific conceprt used as a metaphor

"The learning takes place by doing, in bicycle ridding, language acquisition, or X-ray pathology. Our awarenesses of the rules is subliminal, picked up by osmosis."

Morris Berman (1981). The Reenchantment of the World. Cornell University Press.

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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.

brain's processing function is to the human physiological response system like the nucleus in a cell

An example of an analogy used in writing about science:

"Like the nucleus of a cell, the ego is a contractile point within the Mind, and the Mind is the sum of knowledge gained by all of the body, all of the senses. In reorganising this position of the brain within the mind, one biomedical engineer has suggested that the brain is not the source of thought but a thought amplifier; that knowledge originates not in the brain but in the body, and that the brain simply magnifies and organises it. This thesis does not mean that the brain's processing function is somehow alien to the human physiological response system, any more than the nucleus can be regarded as as an alien element in the cell."

Morris Berman (1981). The Reenchantment of the World. Cornell University Press.

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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 notion of the brain as a thought amplifier can be considered a metaphor.

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ego is like a cell nucleus

An analogy used to explain an idea about science:

"Perhaps the relationship I am suggesting can best be expressed by the metaphor of a nucleus embedded in a cell. The ego is embedded in a larger consciousness in which we participate, and acts as the organiser of life, and as in the cell, the proper relationship between the two modalities is osmotic. Modern science, on the other hand, identifies ego-knowledge with the whole of knowing; it tries to make that osmotic membrane rigid and impermeable. As a result, this type of consciousness begins to suffocate and die."

Morris Berman (1981). The Reenchantment of the World. Cornell University Press.

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quantum mechanics is an embarrassing intruder in the camp

An example of an analogy used in discussing science:

"Since the appearance of quantum mechanics is analogous to Ptolemaic astronomy suddenly finding Copernicus in its camp, we should not be surprised that the scientific establishment has managed to ignore the embarrassing intruder for more than five decades."

Morris Berman (1981). The Reenchantment of the World. Cornell University Press.

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alchemical processes correspond to church sacraments

An example of an historical analogy:

"By the sixteenth century, the church had drawn up a document establishing correspondences between the various alchemical processes and church sacraments. Hence putrefaction was extreme unction; distillation, ordination; calcination, repentance; coagulation, marriage; solution, baptism; sublimation, confirmation; and of course, transmutation, the Mass."

Morris Berman (1981). The Reenchantment of the World. Cornell University Press.

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alchemy is a type of midwifery

An example of an historical analogy:

"Metallurgy was intentionally compared to obstetrics: ores were seen to grow in the womb of the earth like embryos. … In a similar fashion, the alchemical laboratory was seen as an artificial uterus in which the ore could complete its gestation in a relatively short time (compared to the action of the earth). …

From these ancient sources came the central notion of alchemy: that all metals are in the process of becoming gold, that they are gold in potentia, and that men can devise a set of procedures to accelerate their evaluation. The practice of alchemy is … to continue the obstetrical metaphor, a type of midwifery. …

The alchemist is thus like a miner, probing deeper and deeper veins of ore…

at what point in our acceleration of nature's tempo can we be said to have crossed the line from midwifery to induced birth, or even abortion?"

Morris Berman (1981). The Reenchantment of the World. Cornell University Press.

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The idea that all ores in the earth would, given enough time, produce gold is now recognised as an alternative conception, but provided a logical basis for alchemists to attempt transmutation of other metals into gold.

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Historical examples of alternative conceptions

cicadas are the earth's dandruff

An historical example of an analogy used to understand nature:

"Things are also analogous to man in the famous alchemical concept of the microcosm and the macrocosm: the rocks of the earth are its bones, the rivers its veins, the forests its hair and the cicadas its dandruff."

Morris Berman (1981). The Reenchantment of the World. Cornell University Press.

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evaluating athletic potential by genetic tests is like drawing conclusions about a jigsaw picture based on a few pieces

An example of an analogy used by a scientist to explain science:

"The reality is that while we know about certain genetic variants, the vast majority of genetic variants that are influencing physical performance are as yet unknown. I think it would be wrong to make a conclusion about an individual's potential based on genetic tests, given the current state of knowledge. It's like looking at a jigsaw with, I don't know, six pieces in, but it's 500 pieces, and trying to make conclusions about what the picture is at the end. I don't think you could do that realistically."

Prof. Alun Williams, Professor of Sport and Exercise Genomics at Manchester Metropolitan University, was talking on an episode ('Be More Athlete') of BBC's 'Curious Cases'.

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temporary moon is like a leaf caught in whirlpool in a stream

An example of metaphor and simile used in public science discourse:

"And those of you who are playing close attention to the astronomy news, you should aware that Earth has temporarily acquired an extra moon, another asteroid, 2024PT5 that has briefly been snared by earth's gravity, a bit like a leaf caught in whirlpool in a stream."

Roland Pease presenting an episode of 'Science in Action'

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planets are intended to continue their revolutions

An example of teleology in scientific writing:

"For having, in the natural history of this earth, seen a succession of worlds, we may from this conclude that there is a system in nature; in like manner as, from seeing revolutions of the planets, it is concluded, that there is a system by which they are intended to continue those revolutions. But if the succession of worlds is established in the system of nature, it is in vain to look for any thing higher in the origin of the earth. The result, therefore, of our present enquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning – no prospect of an end."

James Hutton (1788) Theory of the Earth

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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.'

as with the building of an Egyptian pyramid the raising up of a continent consists of many events happening in succession

An examples of an analogy used to explain a scientific principle:

"THE whole of a great object or event fills us with wonder and astonishment, when all the particulars, in the succession of which the whole had been produced, may be considered without the least emotion. When, for example, we behold the pyramids of Egypt, our mind is agitated with a crowd of ideas that highly entertains the person who understands the subject; but the carrying a heavy stone up to the top of a hill or mountain would give that person little pleasure or concern. We wonder at the whole operation of the pyramid, but not at any one particular part.

THE raising up of a continent of land from the bottom of the sea, is an idea that is too great to be conceived easily in all the parts of its operation, many of which are perhaps unknown to us; and without being properly understood, so great an idea may appear like a thing that is imaginary. In like manner, the co-relative, or corresponding operation, the destruction of the land, is an idea that does not easily enter into the mind of man in its totality, although he is daily witness to part of the operation. We never see a river in a flood, but we must acknowledge the carrying away of part of our land, to be sunk at the bottom of the sea; we never see a storm upon the coast, but we are informed of a hostile attack of the sea upon our country; attacks which must, in time, wear away the bulwarks of our soil, and sap the foundations of our dwellings. Thus, great things are not understood without the analyzing of many operations, and the combination of time with many events happening in succession."

James Hutton (1788) Theory of the Earth

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