Comparisons – Page 62 – Science-Education-Research

nature has great laboratories

An historical example of metaphor in science writing:

"Indeed, in the great laboratories of nature it can hardly be doubted that almost every kind of chemical process is going forwards, by which compounds of every description are continually forming."
Sir John F. W. Herschel

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

[Note: The laboratory, where the scientist intervenes in 'nature' in a controlled way, is normally contrasted with the 'natural' state.]

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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.

motor impulses may be arranged into melodies

An example of metaphor in scence writing:

"…it is possible to group the isolated effect signs into units that, in the form of self-contained motor impulses or rhythmically arranged melodies of impulses, produce effects in the muscles subject to them."
Jakob von Uexküll

Uexküll, J. v. (1934/2010). A Foray into the Worlds of Animals (J. D. O'Neil, Trans.). In A Foray into the Worlds of Animals; with, A Theory of Meaning (pp. 39-135). University of Minnesota Press.

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the carbon skeleton of an organic molecule clothes itself

An example of metaphor in scientific writing:

"In forming an organic compound, the carbon skeleton clothes itself by establishing covalent bonds to other atoms with its remaining unpaired electrons."
Alan Holden

Holden, A. (1965). The Nature of Solids. Columbia University Press.

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dark clouds threatened physics

An historical example of metaphor used by a scientist

"In a famous lecture before the Royal Society, [William Thomson/Lord Kelvin] warned of two 'dark clouds' threatening to darken the heavens of theoretical physics."
Ernst Schwenk

Schwenk, E. (1994). My name is Becquerel.

[The 'clouds' were relativity and quantum theory.]

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meteors give birth to craters

An example of metaphor in scientific writing:

"…analysis of the meteor that gave birth 25,000 years ago to Meteor Crater in Arizona showed that it did not contain uranium."
Hubert Krivine

Krivine, H. (2015). The Earth. From myths to knowledge [La Terre, des myths au savoir] (D. Fernbach, Trans.). Verso.

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functional groups find the right partners

An example of metaphor and anthropomorphism in broadcast science journalism:

"There are lots of different ways to get molecules to connect to each other, but the more complicated a molecule gets, the harder it is to control exactly where it will react, and the beauty of click chemistry…and bioorthogonal chemistry which is a cousin of click chemistry, these reactions have the special quality that they are so incredibly selective that the two reacting partners just ignore all the other functional groups even on really large molecules and even on large objects like human cells for example…they find each other, but also like they might like bounce around each other until the right two functional groups find each other, right, and they'll click, and all the rest of the stuff on the molecule just, you know, just along for the ride."
Prof. Carolyn R. Bertozzi

Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Professor of Chemistry at Stanford and Nobel Prize winner, was interviewed on an episode ('Nobel Prize 2022: The science behind the winners') of BBC World Service programme/podcast Science in Action.

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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.

perforin behaves like a Trojan horse

An example of metaphor and anthropomorphism in popular science writing:

"While our understanding of perforin is evolving, one theory is that it behaves like a Trojan horse. The cell responds to the initial hole-poking assault by trying to repair itself…At the same time that it pulls in the perforin holes, the cell unwittingly pulls in a family of protein-eating granzymes…"
Catherine Carver

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

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the partial differential equation is the mistress of theoretical physics

An example of metaphor used in a scientist's writing:

"Thus the partial differential equation entered theoretical physics as a handmaid, but has gradually become mistress."
Albert Einstein

Einstein, A. (1931). Maxwell's influence on the evolution of the idea of physical reality (S. Bargmann, Trans.). In Ideas and Opinions. The Modern Library.

Einstein uses two related metaphors (extended metphor) here to suggest how the status of partial differential equations had changed in physics:

the partial differential equation had been a handmaid
but now she is the mistress

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the magnetic field is a sphere of coition

An historical example of metaphor used to explain science

"Sphere of Coition, is all that space through which the smallest magnetic is moved by a magnet"
William Gilbert

Gilbert, W. (1600/2016). On the Magnet, Magnetic Bodies, and the Great Magnet of the Earth. A new science, with many both arguments and experiment proofs. (V. Wilmont, Trans.). Lulu.com.

Gilbert used the term 'Coition' metaphorically to refer to the mutal attraction between magnets.

Sphere of Coition is sometimes translated as Orbe of Coition.

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logic and mathematics are the cement that binds scientific concepts

An example of metaphor in writing about science:

"For one thing logic and mathematics – the cement that binds scientific concepts – are symbolic."
Mario Bunge

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

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logic and mathematics are fibres in the body of science

An example of metaphor in writing about science:

"Since every formula has some logical form or other – and is on occasion nothing but a logical form – we must expect to find fibres of formal science [i.e., logic and mathematics] everywhere in the body of science, even if such fibres are not apparent."
Mario Bunge

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

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Newton was a detective

An example of metaphor in writing about science and scientists:

"Newton was not an actuary who could squeeze a functional relationship out of columns of data; he was an inspired detective who, from a set of apparently disconnected events (a bark, a footprint, a faux pas, a stain) concluded 'The gamekeeper did it'."
Norwood Russell Hanson

Hanson, N. R. (1958). Patterns of Discovery: An inquiry into the conceptual foundations of science. Cambridge University Press.

This quote include both negative and positive metaphors – Isaac Newton was not an actuary, but he was a detective.

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Although the metaphor is extended by locating it in a conceptual structure (what the detective used, what the detective concluded), I do not think it counts as an explicit analogy, as we are not told what the clues or the perpetrator map onto in Newton's scientific work.

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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.