An example of metaphor in public science discourse:
"When the universe started, essentially all that came out of the big bang in chemical terms was hydrogen, helium and a tiny little bit of lithium. And all the [other] chemical elements that are in the universe have formed since that time, in various processes, in normal stars; in supernovae explosions of stars; some possibly in the murder of neutron stars."
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.
"Together, these contrasting electrical charges mean an atom is constantly engaged in an internal tug of war, trying to achieve balance between competing forces – much as humans do in our own heads."
Dr Camilla Pang
Camilla Pang (2020) Explaining Humans. What science can teach us about life, love and relationships. Viking
"…brown ground beetles…go hunting male and female together, but then connect sexually. Once the coupling is consummated, the behaviour of the males towards the females does not change at all, but the latter throw themselves on the males ravenously and tear them limb from limb, against which the males only defend themselves feebly. In the female's environment, the carrier of meaning 'friend' has changed to 'food' without changing its constitution in the least, just as whenthe curbstone, without changing, gives up its meaning as an element of the path in order to transform itself into a projectilewhen the mood of the subject 'human being' changes and impresses a different meaning upon the stone."
von Uexküll, J. (1940/2010). A Theory of Meaning (J. D. O'Neil, Trans.). In A Foray into the Worlds of Animals; with, A Theory of Meaning (pp. 137-208). University of Minnesota Press.
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.
"In fact, the total mass of a molecule is somewhat less than the sum of the masses of its component atoms. This difference – the mass defect – goes into the binding energy of the atoms in the molecule and is therefore of paramount theoretical importance although it is not detectable in the chemical laboratory, the scales of which are insufficiently sensitive for this purpose. If atomic masses were strictly additive there would be be no stable compounds: every combination would result from a chance encounter of indifferent atoms and would therefore be unstable; as it is, there are binding forces to which binding energies correspond.
A first metascientific moral of the above story is that mass is objectively nonadditive although the measured value of masses are additive in the context of present measurement technology. In other words mass is physically (objectively) nonadditive though empirically additive- much as all Eskimos look the same to unexperienced Europeans."
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.
An example of analogy used in popular science writing:
"Just as there are different types of relationships, there are also different types of bonds with varying properties. There are strong and weak bonds, temporary and permanent ones, some that are reliant on attraction and others that depend on a union of differences."
Dr Camilla Pang
Camilla Pang (2020) Explaining Humans. What science can teach us about life, love and relationships. Viking
(All chemical bonds depend on a balance of attractive and repulsive forces.)
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.
"But if every gramme of material contains this tremendous energy, why did it go so long unnoticed? The answer is simple enough: so long as none of the energy is given off externally, it simply cannot be observed. It is as though a man who is fabulously rich should never spend or give away a cent; no one could tell how rich he was. …
Schematically, the process goes like this: An atom of the mass M splits into two atoms of the mass M' and M", which separate with tremendous kinetic energy….The atom Mis a rich miser who, during his life, gives away no money (energy). But in his will he bequeaths his fortune to his sons M' and M", on condition that they give to the community a small amount, less than one thousandth of the whole estate (energy or mass). The sons together have somewhat less than the father had (the mass sum M' + M" is somewhat smaller than the mass M of the radioactive atom). But the part given to the community, though relatively small, is still so enormously large (considered as kinetic energy) that it brings with it a great threat of evil."
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.
An historical example of metaphor and simile in scientific thinking:
"Fludd believed …Magnetic attraction was a 'coition or union' between bodies caused by the similarity of their nature. The lodestone, Fludd wrote, 'sucketh and attracteth from his center the body of Iron unto it, drawing forth of it his formal beams, as it were his spiritual food'."
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.
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.
An historical example of analogy to expalin a scientific idea:
"A solid body may be regarded as a fabric, more or less regularly and artificially constructed, in which the materials and the workmanship may be separately considered, and in which, though the latter be ruined and confounded by violence, the former remain unchanged in their nature, though differently arranged."
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.
An analogy between everyday and natural phenomena, in a popular science book. Here the scientific concepts are used as the analogy, and the everyday experience as the target to be explained by analogy.*
"Our relationships are subject to the same threat of decay, likely to die out if we lose the ability to undergo emotional mitosis, continuing to evolve and specialise in changing circumstances – as both our needs and those of our partner change. At the other extreme, a relationship can go too fast and become too intense to bear, in the same way that a cell which has mutated and can't stop dividing has become cancerous, growing out of control and starting to attack the body."
Dr Camilla Pang
Pang, C. (2020) Explaining Humans. What science can teach us about life, love and relationships. Viking.
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.
* I asked the AI Assistant built into website building tools to explain the analogy, and it suggested:
Dr. Camilla Pang uses a compelling biological metaphor to draw parallels between human relationships and cellular processes. The term emotional mitosis suggests the natural division and evolution of feelings within a relationship. Just as cells divide to grow and adapt, relationships need to evolve and change to stay vibrant and healthy.
When she states that relationships can "die out if we lose the ability to undergo emotional mitosis," she means that without growth and adaptation to new circumstances, or the evolving needs of each person involved, relationships may stagnate and eventually end.
On the other hand, she warns of the dangers of a relationship becoming "too fast and too intense to bear," comparing it to a cell that has mutated. Normally, cellular division is a regulated process. However, when a cell mutates and begins to divide uncontrollably, it can become cancerous, spreading and harming the body. Similarly, a relationship that becomes excessively intense in a short time can be overwhelming and destructive. The healthy balance of growth and intensity is crucial in both living organisms and human relationships.
An historical example of an analogy in scientific thinking:
"… Newton … suppose luminous objects actually to dart out from them in all directions…without ever coming in actual contact with the particles themselves of the bodies on which they fall, but either being turned back and reflected by the repulsive forces before they reach them, or penetrating between their intervals, as a bird may be supposed to fly through the branches of a forest…"
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 quoted passage from Sir John Frederick William Herschel's work "Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy" uses a vivid simile to describe a theory of how light interacts with matter. In this analogy, luminous objects, such as stars or candles, emit light in a manner similar to how birds dart around: the light is cast out in all directions. However, when this light encounters other objects, it doesn't physically touch or collide with their particles. Instead, two possibilities occur: The light is turned back, or reflected, due to repulsive forces. This is akin to a bird being repelled and changing direction before it actually comes into contact with the branches of trees.
The light finds its way between the particles, much like a bird navigating through the gaps between the branches of a forest without touching them.
This passage is metaphorically describing light propagation and interaction theories of the time, which would later be deepened with the understanding of light as both a particle and a wave, leading to the development of quantum mechanics and the field of photonics."
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.
"…syphilis… which is the consequence of contagious and leprous affections of the genitals, is a daughter of leprosy and can in certain circumstances in turn become the mother of leprosy."
Friedrich Alexander Simon
Friedrich Alexander Simon (1793- 1869, German physician) quoted in Fleck, L. (1979). Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact [Entstehung und Entwicklung einer wissenschaftlichen Tatsache. Einführung in die Lehre vom Denkstil und Denkkollektiv] (F. Bradley & T. J. Trenn, Trans.; T. J. Trenn & R. K. Merton, Eds.). The University of Chicago Press. (1935)
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.