An examples of a scientific concept being used as a simile.
"The job of the ethnologist is to describe the surface patterns as best he [or she] can, to reconstitute the deeper structures out of which they are built, and to classify those structures, once reconstituted, into an analytical scheme – rather like Mendeleev's periodic table of the elements."
Clifford Geertz (2000) The cerebral savage: on the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss (first published 1967), in The Interpretation of Cultures. Selected Essays (2nd Edition). New York. Basic Books
Read about examples of science similes
Many examples of science similes are listed in 'Creative Comparisons: Making Science Familiar through Language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.
