Examples of personification of inanimate entities (other than nature)
Personification is treating a nonperson as if a person, as when referring to a country or boat as a 'she'. Personification is quite common in science writing. Sometimes this is limited to no more that referring to an 'it' as he (e.g., the Sun) or she (e.g., the Moon), but sometimes anthropomorphic metaphors are used (suggesting the object acts or perceives or feels as a person).
Read about personification in science
In particular, there is a long tradition of referring to nature as as if a female person, and another page offers access to some of those examples (some now quite historical, but some more contemporary).
Read examples of nature personified
A document listing a wide range of examples of science analogies, similes, metaphors and the like, drawn from diverse sources, can be downloaded using this link: 'Creative Comparisons: Making Science Familiar through Language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts.'
Some examples of personification (of heavenly bodies, of elements, etc.) are abstracted on this page:
sciences
astronomy (urania): ♀- her
heavenly bodies
Earth: ♀- her, herself
Jupiter: ♂ – his
- Jupiter was named for his radiance (Nicolaus Copernicus)
- shadows of his satellites passing over his body (John Flamsteed)
Mars: ♂ – his
- Mars was named for his fiery glow (Nicolaus Copernicus)
- observations of the parallax of Mars will give his distance (John Flamsteed)
- telescopes always show him more than half illuminated (John Flamsteed)
Mercury: ♂ – his
Moon: ♀ – her, she
- as her motion was swifter than the other planets she might be nearest the earth (John Flamsteed)
- astronomy enquires into lunar periods and her anomalies and her distances (John Flamsteed)
- he was more remote than the moon because she sometimes covered and eclipsed him (John Flamsteed)
- next night at her rising they found her different about one degree (John Flamsteed)
- she alone of all the planets refers her revelations to the centre of the earth (Nicolaus Copernicus)
- she refused to be bridled by the numbers of any astronomer (Edmund Halley)
- when the Moon appears half illuminated she seems wanting and hollow (John Flamsteed)
Saturn: ♂ – whose
- Saturn within whose circle the spheres of the others are naturally encompassed (Edward Kelley)
- shadow of his body on his ring (John Flamsteed)
Sun: ♂ – himself, him, his, he
- comet in access towards him has been retarded in his recess as accelerated in his access (Isaac Newton)
- he was more remote than the moon because she sometimes covered and eclipsed him (John Flamsteed)
- sun burns faster when convex side of plano-convex lens is towards him (John Flamsteed)
- Sun commands things to tend towards himself (Edmund Halley)
Venus: ♀ – she
- it takes her more than twenty days to rotate on her axis (Fred Hoyle)
- she modestly hides her surface (Fred Hoyle)
- Venus was named as she shines at morning or evening (Nicolaus Copernicus)
comet: ♂ – his
- comet in access towards him has been retarded in his recess as accelerated in his access (Isaac Newton)
Materials
coal: ♀ – she
- she is an icon and she is a legend (U.S. Department of Energy)
