An example of simile, and anthrpomorphism, in public science discourse:
"And what we had to do was to separate those two strands, and then ask those separated strands to find the complementary sequence in the human genome that we had also separated into single stranded pieces. So, it was sort of like a magnet, sort of like asking that fly piece [of D.N.A.] to bind to the opposite strand in the human genome like a magnet."
Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith
Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith (Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and the Arthur Balfour Professor of Genetics at the University of Cambridge), was interviewed on an episode ('Anne Ferguson-Smith on unravelling epigenetics') of BBC's 'The Life Scientific'.
Complementary strands binding 'sort of like' magnets is an example of simile, but there is also a sense of anthropomorphims here in tht D.N.A. strands are able to respond to requests to find other strands with matching sequences.
Read about examples of science similes
Read examples of anthropomorphism in science
[Please be aware that a word may have different nuances, or even a different meaning, according to context.]« Back to Index
