Tooltip Categories: Idioms

electrons dance around a cyclic transition state during electrocyclisation

An example of the use of metaphor (and an English idiom) in science journalism:

"Long-time readers of this column will know that I love a cycloaddition – I've probably run hundreds of them over my career as an organic chemist. There was even a two-hour period immediately before my PhD viva where I could credibly claim to understand the fiendishly complex Woodward-Hoffman rules that were used to rationalise their outcomes in the pencil-and-paper days before computational chemistry. However, I have far less experience with their rarer cousin, the electrocyclisation.
On the surface, these reactions are pretty simple: electrons dance around a cyclic transition state, resulting in a double bond lost and a single bond gained.
…
A great example of a recent total synthesis that hinges on a couple of well-chosen (but well-hidden) electrocyclisations is the route taken to the phomopsene diterpenes by Yong-Qiang Tu of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Lanzhou University, China, and co-workers.

The route more-or-less begins with a Nazarov cyclisation/ring expansion cascade, an unbelievable disconnection that's about as obvious as a black cat in a coal cellar. "

Chris Nawra (2013) (+)-iso-Phomopsene (and friends), Chemistry World, October 2023, p.13. https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/-iso-phomopsene-and-friends/4018109.article

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.

hydrogen solubility in metals is a new holy grail

An example of the use of a metaphor which could be considered an English idiom:

"It is conceivable within such a model that hydrogen might be rejected into the outer core as the inner core crystallised. The mismatch of concentrations with the mantle would then encourage hydrogen to diffuse into the magma where solubility changes for different temperatures and pressure could cause it to degas from the solution. However, this all hinges on guesswork around the solubility of hydrogen in metals at the relevant temperatures and pressures, which experiments struggle to verify, since the equipment needed to achieve those conditions is incompatible with taking direct measurements. 'Hydrogen solubility in metal as a function of temperature and pressure is one of the new holy grails, I would say, of planetary research,' says Young [Edward Young at the University of California in Los Angeles]."

Demming, A. (2023, September). The hunt for natural hydrogen reserves. Chemistry World, 20(9), 48-51. https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/the-hunt-for-natural-hydrogen-reserves/4017747.article

Read about communicating science through idioms

DNA is like an encyclopedia but metabolites are like a Twitter feed

An example of an analogy used in public science discourse

"In archaeological science, ancient DNA is the big suck-see thing, right. But to me DNA is like the Encyclopaedia Britannica; proteins are like your daily news feed, they are telling you what is happening today, like a broadsheet if you like, but metabolites are like a twitter feed, what's happening right now. So metabolites can be really interesting to study decay, because they are released in breakdown processes. Maybe we can even get a sense of what someone died of, if those things are preserved."

Ally Morton-Hayward (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford)
was talking on an episode of Science in Action.

n.b. I checked the phrase 'the big suck-see thing' several times in case I misheard as I was not familiar with this term. (This is what it sounds like to me: I could still be mishearing). I am familiar with the idiom 'suck it and see' – which was used in my school chemistry to mean try out an organic reaction to see if the desired product is actually produced, i.e. 'try it out'.

Read about analogy in science

Read examples of scientific analogies

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.


climates went South after Toba eruption

An example of idiom used in public science discourse

"It was argued that [the Toba eruption] would have set up a volcanic winter, similar to what we have talked about for the nuclear winter where climates just went South, terribly South, and it was argued that human populations might have been forced to the edge of extinction."
John W. Kappelman Jr

Prof. John Kappelman (Anthropology, University of Texas) was talking on an episode ('Out of Africa') of Science in Action.

South here is not used as a cardinal direction but metaphorically to mean things deteriorated. This is an idiom that users of the English language are expected to be familiar with. (See 'science through idioms').

Rosetta spacecraft hibernated for several years

An example of anthropomorphism in popular science writing:

"The ESA Rosetta spacecraft had a lot resting on its wide, solar-panel, shoulders when it launched at the start of its mission to catch up with a comet in space. Firstly, it had a long and lonely journey into deep space to contend with, requiring it to enter hibernation for a number of years to save energy. There was no certainty it would wake again."

Natalie Starkey

Starkey, N. (2018). Catching Stardust. Comets, asteroids and the birth of the solar system. Bloomsbury Sigma

The reference to wide shoulders is a kind of metaphor (or, perhaps here a pun) based on an English idiom ('broad shoulders' as supporting much weight but used metaphorically for substantive responsibilities etc,) that might not be familiar to some.

Read about anthropomorphism

Read examples of anthropomorphism in science

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.

Read about idioms in science discourse