An example of personification in contemporary public science dialogue
"…the click, click, click of the Geiger counter is the sound of, normally a beta particle, but occasionally an alpha particle sparking a small current in the detector. …
There are lots of naturally occurring radioactive elements on the periodic table, and there are a few radioactive elements that don't exist naturally. We work with both types actually as nuclear chemists, and that click, click, click sound is the sound of an individual atom decaying, turning from one element into another which is quite cool because of course the alchemists of old, they tried to transform elements from one into another but nature did it all by herself."
Dr Tim Gregory, senior nuclear chemist at the United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory at Sellafield, was talking on an episode ('The uses and abuses of the atom') of BBC's 'Start the Week'.
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Many examples of personification are included in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.
[The click produced by the instrument is not directly the sound of an individual atom decaying (like using a stethoscope to hear a heartbeat), but rather an indirect indicator relying on both considerable amplification of the electrical effect of the ionising radiation and the transduction of the signal to sound.]
