An example of a metaphor used in science journalism,
"It was Robert Koch, the German scientist who identified the rod-shaped bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis as the cause of TB in 1882…
In recent decades, the WHO [i.e., World Health Organisation] has endorsed some more sensitive diagnostic tools. These include molecular diagnostic tools that look for the DNA of M. tuberculosis in sputum samples. Cepheid's GeneXpert system, endorsed by the WHO in 2010, is the most widely used molecular diagnostic for pulmonary TB. GeneXpert uses cartridges preloaded with reagents. 'It's the Nespresso machine of the TB tests,' [Prof. Madhukar] Pai says. A consortium of collaborators including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) supported GeneXpert's development. The system processes sputum samples in about 90 minutes, extracting, amplifying and detecting DNA from M. tuberculosis."
Nina Notman (2024) Testing times for tuberculosis. Chemistry World, February 2024.
[Prof. Madhukar Pai is associate director of the International TB Centre at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.]
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Read about examples of science metaphors
Many examples of science metaphors are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.
