How metaphors guide, teach and popularize science / edited by Anke Beger, Thomas H. Smith.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Beger, Anke, 1983- editor.

Smith, Thomas H., 1941- editor.

Series:

Figurative thought and language ; Volume 6.

Figurative thought and language ; Volume 6

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communication in science.

Science--Language.

Science.

Science--Study and teaching.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (340 pages).

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2020.

Summary:

"Metaphors are essential to scientists themselves and strongly influence science communication. Through careful analyses of metaphors actually used in science texts, recordings, and videos, this book explores the essential functions of conceptual metaphor in the conduct of science, teaching of science, and how scientific ideas are promoted and popularized. With an accessible introduction to theory and method this book prepares scientists, science teachers, and science writers to take advantage of recent shifts in metaphor theories and methods. Metaphor specialists will find theoretical issues explored in studies of bacteriology, cell reproduction, marine biology, physics, brain function and social psychology. We see the degree of conscious or intentional use of metaphor in shaping our conceptual systems and constraining inferences. Metaphor sources include social structure, embodied experience, abstract or mathematical formulations. The results are sometimes innovative hypotheses and robust conclusions; other times pedagogically useful, if inaccurate, stepping stones or, at worst, misleading fictions"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Social metaphors in cellular and molecular biology / Theodore L. Brown

Coordinating metaphors in science, learning and instruction : The case of energy / Tamer G. Amin

Metaphor and the popularization of contested technologies / Bettina Bock von Wülfingen

To be or not to be : reconsidering the metaphors of apoptosis in press popularisation articles / Julia T. Williams Camus

Non-verbal and multimodal metaphors bring biology into the picture / José Manuel Ureña Gómez-Moreno

Three metaphors in social science : use patterns and usefulness, separately and together / Thomas H. Smith

The brain is a computer and the mind is its program : following a metaphor's path from its birth to teaching philosophy decades later / Anke Beger

Conclusion: When metaphors serve scientific ends / Thomas H. Smith and Anke Beger.

Notes:

CC BY-NC-ND

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9789027261441

902726144X

Access Restriction:

Open Access Unrestricted online access