Metaphors In Science

“Metaphor in Science”: Using Language as a Tool With or without knowing it, we all use metaphor to explain things around us. It helps us understand things we cannot see with naked eyes or express things we cannot normally experience. Metaphor is a bridge that connects two different ideas and lets us explore and understand those concepts fully. Just like metaphor plays a big role in everyday language usages, it also helps shape our understanding of science language. Metaphor helps extend our understanding in science by playing important roles in atomic structure and models, theories, teaching, and scientific ideas and concepts such as genetics and evolution. There are some objects we cannot see with our naked eyes or even under microscopes. To believe those atoms and molecules exist, to understand how they behave or impact our lives, metaphors are being used everyday. The molecular models are filled with metaphors that let us understand how far one atom is from another in a molecule as well as the difference in their sizes and the reactions between them (Reeves 26). For example, the model of a methane molecule shows a metaphoric concept as it has four spheres with rigid rods that are being connected to a centered carbon atom, fitting “the observations made in experiments” (26).
For example, a type of protein that assists other proteins in folding to make sure those proteins function properly is called a “chaperone.” And the metaphor “chaperone” helps us understand the concept of that particular protein’s function (27). When Thomson studied the distribution of positive and negative charges in an atom, he used the “plum pudding model” metaphor to conduct his experiment (29). Rutherford further studied Thomson’s metaphorical theory about electron scattering using yet another metaphor and came up with the “nuclear model”