Categories: Pseudo-explanations
An example of anthropomorphism in public science discourse:
"Now trees always try to add as much wood as they can, but remember they are limited by the amount of sunlight, the amount of water, and nutrients. But they also have a balancing act, which is, yes, they want to grow as much as possible, but they also want to reproduce. And so the tree is constantly trying to balance 'hey, I've got to actually produce fruit, I've got to produce acorns, I've actually got to reproduce at the same time as growing'."
Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science at University College London was talking on an episode ('Answers to Your Science Questions') of BBC Inside Science.
Read examples of anthropomorphism in science
