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Metaphor in science

We would be unable to think or communicate without metaphors. They enable us to express the unknown or unseen via the known and seen. They help us understand what we can't touch, feel or see through what we can touch, feel and see. For example, we apply our experience of the concrete world and physical space in metaphors that describe our feelings and our thoughts. We say we are feeling ‘up’ or ‘down’, that we have something ‘on’ our minds. Some people are ‘insiders’ and some are ‘outsiders’. Some are ‘small-minded’ while others have ‘big hearts’.

In many ways, all language is metaphoric if we think of metaphor as simply ...

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