An example of a simile drawing upon a scientific concept:
"The early polities were thus not so much solidary territorial units as loose congeries of villages oriented toward a common urban centre, each such centre competing with others for ascendency…. So far as the the pattern was territorial at all, it consisted of a series of concentric circles of religio-military power spreading out around the various city-state capitals, as radio waves spread from a transmitter. The closer a village to a town, the greater the impact, economically and culturally, of the court on that village."
Clifford Geertz (2000) Ideology as a cultural system (first published 1964), 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.
Note: I considered classing this as analogy as I could read a specific mapping between conceptual structures (urban centre :transmitter; religio-military power : radio waves), but felt the mapping was not made explicit and the sense of "as radio waves spread from a transmitter" was more of a simile. I do not pretend such classification is an exact science.
Read examples of scientific analogies
Many examples of science analogies are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.
