An historical example of simile in science writing:
"Why then, does it happen that as a snowflake falls before it is flattened, it should imitate precisely the skeleton (so to say) of the octahedron with its three feathered diameters that intersect at right angles? Join up the neighbouring tips of the radii with twelve straight lines, and you will represent the complete solid of an octahedron."
Johannes Kepler
Kepler, J. (1966). A New Year's Gift. Or, on the six-cornered snowflake (C. Hardie, Trans.). Oxford University Press. (Original Latin edition, 1611)
[I am not sure if 'feathered' as used here counts as a metaphor. It does not seem to refer directly to bird feathers, but may link to 'edges' or even arrows (pointing along what we would call cartesian axes).]
Read about examples of science similes
