Comparisons – Page 61 – Science-Education-Research

uniformitarianism is like bookkeeping

An example of the use of similes in explaining science:

"At its most abstract, Lyell is proposing a change from seeing geology as a litany of an enormous number of singular events (like a huge epic poem) to seeing it as the systemisation of a small number of kinds of events. Thus, instead of seeing a particular mountain as a sign of a massive upthrust at some given date in the past, he sees it as a typical example of a kind of change that is occurring today. There are no privileged moments. His geology is a kind of bookkeeping device that allows the storage of vast amounts of information by sorting them into a kind of filing cabinet of different kinds of events."
Geoffrey C. Bowker

Bowker, G. C. (2005). Memory Practices in the Sciences. The MIT Press.

(This could be considered to amount to an analogy suggesting that the shift in geology from catastrophism to uniformitariansm was like changing from composing an epic poem to keeping account books of small detailed changes.)

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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.

D.N.A. strands attract like magnets

An example of simile, and anthrpomorphism, in public science discourse:

"And what we had to do was to separate those two strands, and then ask those separated strands to find the complementary sequence in the human genome that we had also separated into single stranded pieces. So, it was sort of like a magnet, sort of like asking that fly piece [of D.N.A.] to bind to the opposite strand in the human genome like a magnet."
Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith

Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith (Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and the Arthur Balfour Professor of Genetics at the University of Cambridge), was interviewed on an episode ('Anne Ferguson-Smith on unravelling epigenetics') of BBC's 'The Life Scientific'.

Complementary strands binding 'sort of like' magnets is an example of simile, but there is also a sense of anthropomorphims here in tht D.N.A. strands are able to respond to requests to find other strands with matching sequences.

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Read about anthropomorphism

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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.

virus particles hide beneath a cloak

An example of the use of metaphor and anthropomorphism in popular science writing:

"The AIDS virus subverts its host's cells. It forces them to make replicas of itself with an enzyme whose job it is to copy information from the invader's RNA into human DNA. Each new particle hides itself in a cloak of cell membrane into which it inserts a protein. This is the key to the infection as it fits into matched molecules on the surface of blood cells and opens the door to their interior."
Prof. Steve Jones

Steve Jones (1999) Almost Like a Whale: The origin of species updated. Doubleday

There is quite lot going on here. Virus 'subverts' cells. An enzyme has a 'job'. Virus particles 'hide' in a 'cloak'. A protein acts as the 'key' that 'opens a door' into blood cells.

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.

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To say an enzyme has a job perhaps seems just another way of sugesting it hs a function, but this may seem to suggest a deliberate, designed arrangment, whereas science suggests these 'functions' evolved due to natural selection. The phrasing may therefore suggest teleology, a sense of purpose:

Read about teleology in science

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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.'

the Nobel prize is awarded to the fathers not the baptisers of remarkable ideas

An example of metaphor in writing about science:

"…several meanings and roles may consistently be assigned to the symbol '𝝍': it may at the same time belong to an abstract function space, it may represent the physical state of a system as a whole, the de Broglie wave associated with the latter, the amplitude of the probability of position, and so on. For the latter interpretation M. Born was awarded the Nobel prize – which is given to the fathers of remarkable ideas, not their baptisers unless the name happens to convey the meaning."
Mario Bunge

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

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nature is a pregnant mine

An historical example of metaphor used by a scientist:

"It is here that the investigation of the hidden powers of nature becomes a mine, every vein of which is pregnant with inexhaustible wealth, and whose ramifications appear to extend in all directions wherever human wants or curiosity may lead us to explore."
Sir John F. W. Herschel

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

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there's a whole zoo of different stars

An example of metphor in popular science witing:

"Not all stars are the same – there's a whole zoo of them, determined by their mass and the stage they're at in their life cycle."
Andrew May

May, A. (2019) Astrobiology: The Search for Life Elsewhere in the Universe

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the foundations of the edifice of science need contuual renewal

An example of metphor used by a scientist:

"The more the edifice of science develops, and the more freely it rises into the air, the more it requires the examination and the continual renewal of its foundations."
Ernst Cassirer

Cassirer, E. (2000/1942). The Logic of the Cultural Sciences (S. G. Lofts, Trans.). Yale University Press.

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causality is a signpost showing the direction for scientific research

An example of an extended metaphor used by a scientist:

"The law of causality is neither true nor false. It is rather a heuristic principle, a signpost – and in my opinion, our most valuable signpost – to help us find our bearings in a bewildering maze of occurrences, and to show us the direction in which scientific research must advance in order to achieve fertile results."
Max Planck

Plank, M. (1948). The concept of causality in physics (F. Gaynor, Trans.). In Scientific Autobiography and other papers (pp. 121-150). Philosophical Library.

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scientists quench their thirst for knowledge at a fountain

An example of metaphor in a scientist's writings:

"…not all statements which lack a logical foundation are scientifically worthless, and that [such] short-sighted formalism stops up the very fountain at which a Galileo, a Kepler, a Newton, and many other great physicists have quenched their thirst for scientific knowledge and insight."
Max Planck

Plank, M. (1948/1949). The concept of causality in physics (F. Gaynor, Trans.). In Scientific Autobiography and other papers (pp. 121-150). Philosophical Library.

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planetary systems soak up angular momentum

An example of metaphor used in poplr scence writing:

"And because physics works the same everywhere, it's likely that planetary systems have soaked up the 'missing' angular momentum around other stars, too."
Andrew May

Andrew May (2019) Astrobiology: The Search for Life Elsewhere in the Universe

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