Scientific knowledge has no God-given authority over poetry, politics or even fine art, and the system of evaluation or selection and approval are analogous, if not identical, in the different fields. Science journalism here is no longer translation. It is the writing of new stories with quite different characters and relationships. If we now turn to scientific institutions and their policy decisions about language then we find that a distaste for metaphors lies at the heart of modern science. A well-known campaign against the use of metaphor was planted in the origins of the Royal Society.
Metaphor does elaborate.
Spratt's desire to 'cleanse' the language of science arose from the perceived power of metaphors to inflame passion in one of the most internally poisonous periods of English domestic history. Yet Spratt's ideas about good language have a surprisingly modern resonance. But the language of science no longer confirms that experience. An examination of the way in which scientific ideas gain credence within a scientific community, shows that the role of metaphor is absolutely crucial. At a certain point the scientist will encounter a conceptual problem and in order to try to solve that problem, a leap of the imagination is necessary.