great discoveries grow like seeds cast by chance on fertile soil

An example of metaphor and simile in scientific writing:

"The brilliant series of discoveries in electricity that followed Volta's development of the voltaic pile at the beginning of the last [sic] century, the Pleiades of histological work inspired by Schwann's discovery of cell multiplication, and the profound repercussions that the not so distant finding of roentgen rays have produced in all areas of physics (the observation of radioactivity, and the discovery of radium and polonium and of the phenomenon of emanation) are good examples of that creative and, in a sense, automatic virtue possessed by all great discoveries, which seem to grow and multiple like seeds cast by chance on fertile soil."

Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1999). Advice for a Young Investigator. The MIT Press. (Translation of 4th Spanish Edition, 1916)

Read about similes in science

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.