flowers are nature's gentlest children

An example of metaphor in a scientist's writing:

"Flowers, nature's gentlest children, are also conspicuous for their colours and their cyclic symmetry."

Hermann Weyl

Weyl, H. (1952/2016). Symmetry (New Princeton Science Library edition ed.). Princeton 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.

sensory organs serve as a sieve

An example of simile in a scientist's writing"

"Only when we have clearly recognised the task of the sensory organs will the structure of the whole organisms be comprehensible to us. In relation to the outer front, they serve as a sieve for the physiochemical effects of the outside world."

Jakob von Uexküll

Uexküll, J. v. (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.

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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.

principles are fixed compass points

An example of an extended metaphor in a scientist's writing:

"Principles constitute the fixed points of the compass that are required for successful orientation in the world of phenomena."

Ernst Cassirer

Cassirer, E. (1950/1978). The Problem of Knowledge. Philosophy, Science, & History since Hegel (W. H. Woglom & C. W. Hendel, Trans.). Yale University Press.

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Read about examples of science metaphors

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.

elementary particles can be organised into kinship groups

An example of simile in popular science writing:

"By the 1950s, elementary (or seemingly elementary) particles were proliferating, and new 'quantum numbers' were invented to describe them: charge, spin, parity (related to mirror image symmetry), isospin, strangeness, charm … they came out of efforts to classify particles by their properties, to organise them into kinship groups, so to speak, depending on how interacted with each other."

David Lindley

Lindley, D. (2020). The Dream Universe. How fundamental physics lost its way. Doubleday.

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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.

alternative complement pathway is like a showering of hand grenades

An example of simile in popular science writing:

"[the alternative complement pathway is] based on a constant low-level spontaneous activation of C3 in the blood, breaking it up into C3a and C3b like a showering of tiny hand grenades on the surrounding cells."

Catherine Carver

Carver, C. (2017). Immune. How your body defends and protects you. Bloomsbury Sigma. (Read 'Disease and immunity – a biological myth'.)

Read about similes in science

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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.

shortening of the telomere is like the fraying of a shoelace

An example of simile and metaphor in popular science writing"

"Every time a cell undergoes mitosis, it loses a little of what is called the telomere, the protective surface on the chromosome, capping the end of each D.N.A. strand. In a process often likened to the gradual fraying of a shoelace, the telomere gets a little shorter with every division, until eventually it can no longer guard the D.N.A. effectively, and the cell loses its ability to undergo mitosis and becomes senescent (inert)."

Dr Camilla Pang

Pang, C. (2020) Explaining Humans. What science can teach us about life, love and relationships. Viking

Read about similes in science

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.

Read about metaphor in science

Read about examples of science metaphors

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.

describing science as a language is like taking cans for canned food

An example of an analogy used in writing about science:

"Some philosophers think that a science is just an artificial language…But that is taking cans for canned food. Science constructs sign systems and works with them but only in so far as they can materialise our ideas concerning nonlinguistic objects, such as chemical binding. Furthermore, science is communicable but it does not serve the purpose of communication….Science, in short, has a language but is not a language…."

Mario Bunge

Bunge, M. (2017/1998). Philosophy of Science. Volume 1: From problem to theory (Revised ed.). Routledge.

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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.

pseudo-explanations are like false pearls

An example of analogy used in writing about science:

"Labeling, or name-calling, is a pseudo-explanation and it should be dealt with in an account of explanation much for the same reason that unauthentic ('false') pearls must be mentioned in a treatise on pearls."

Mario Bunge

Bunge, M. (2017/1998). Philosophy of Science. Volume 2: From explanation to justification (Revised ed.). Routledge.

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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.

people interfere with each other like waves

An example of an analogy that uses a scientific concept as an analogy for an everyday experience:

"What resonance and interference show us is that synchronicity is what really makes the difference in nature. Being 'in phase' is often more impactful than being incredibly powerful. The same is true of human personalities and how they work together – or don't. If you've ever said about a new friend or love interest that 'We just clicked', then you know what constructive interference feels like on a human level: a relationship that is so much more fun, energising and life-giving because two personalities lift each other to a level that neither could reach unassisted. On the other hand, you have probably also experienced the opposite – when someone who is not in sync with you actually seems to drain your energy and enjoyment. Just as annoying noise can be 'cancelled' to equilibrium by another, out-of-phase[,] wave, our spirit and personality can be neutralised by the wrong kind of people in our lives. These destructive interferers tire us out, make us feel bad about ourselves and make it impossible to enjoy anything."

Dr Camilla Pang

Pang, C. (2020). Explaining Humans. What science can teach us about life, love and relationships. Viking.

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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.

alchemy only offered a doubtful spark

An historical example of metaphor in writing about science:

"In 'this opake of nature and of soul', the perverse activity of the alchemists from time to time struck out a doubtful spark; and our illustrious countryman, Roger Bacon, shone out at the obscurest moment, like an early star predicting dawn. It was not, however, till the sixteenth century that the light of nature began to break forth with a regular and progressive increase."

Sir John Frederick William Herschel

Herschel, J. F. W. (1830). Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy.

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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.

explanation consummates the marriage of reason and experience

An example of metaphor in writing about science:

"We might go as far as saying that explanation consummates the marriage of reason and experience, since it is a logical argument requiring empirical data and tested (or at least testable) generalisations".

Mario Bunge

Bunge, M. (2017/1998). Philosophy of Science. Volume 2: From explanation to justification (Revised ed.). Routledge.

Read about metaphor in science

Read about examples of science metaphors

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.

deduction takes place in the bosom of scientific theories

An example of metaphor in science writing:

"Scientific explanation…is performed in the bosom of theories."

"…every deduction is made in some context and that the peculiarity of scientific deduction is that it takes place in the bosom of scientific theories, whether adult or not. Ordinary explanation, by contrast, is made in the body of ordinary knowledge, which is a rather poor and incoherent mosaic."

Mario Bunge

Bunge, M. (2017/1998). Philosophy of Science. Volume 2: From explanation to justification (Revised ed.). Routledge.

Read about metaphor in science

Read about examples of science metaphors

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.