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I hate these pointless analogies in popular science reporting. "droplets of fluid will move like performers in a dance choreographed" -- it may sound good to th

I hate these pointless analogies in popular science reporting. "droplets of fluid will move like performers in a dance choreographed" -- it may sound good to the writer but it just comes across as pretentious and does not help explain anything. In general those facile analogies do in fact make things muddier. The only exceptions is when they are stated along with how they are different from the phenomenon being described. Here, no point, except to pad the word count I guess.

teekert 6y ago
I agree, it would be nice if they just explained where the energy comes from and how it flows to drive this, imho the most interesting question. But I guess "a mystery" draws a bigger public. For me it just means frustration after watching the movie.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  I guess it's a difference in the target audience. They're writing for the people who will look at it and exclaim, "oh, how beautiful deep and profound this Science is". Myself, I look at science articles with questions that boil down to "how can we make use of it to build something cool?". I look for explanations, even coarse, of what's going on - what are the critical conditions that need to be preserved for the phenomenon to appear? What are the hard constraints? So yeah, I prefer less artistic but confusing analogies.
  - xbar 6y ago
    I think you are right. These are marketing pieces, not journals. I do not think that's not bad at all. I am certain the journal article for this story satisfies demands of rigor. But I like being able to take this piece to my 10 year-old who may focus her 5th grade science project on yogurt and getting her inspired to be curious about the fluids she plays with every day.
    - teekert 6y ago
      Exactly, I mean you can just add a small animation of how evaporation in 1 component is faster and pushes the two-bubble structure in one direction. It runs untill it gets too cold (endothermic reaction). Or something like that.. but correct ;)
ignisrising 6y ago
I was excited for this article and then I read your comment and it... just makes sense what you wrote and now I'm not that excited. I'm thankful but at the same time I'm not

teekert 6y ago

I agree, it would be nice if they just explained where the energy comes from and how it flows to drive this, imho the most interesting question. But I guess "a mystery" draws a bigger public. For me it just means frustration after watching the movie.

TeMPOraL 6y ago
I guess it's a difference in the target audience. They're writing for the people who will look at it and exclaim, "oh, how beautiful deep and profound this Science is". Myself, I look at science articles with questions that boil down to "how can we make use of it to build something cool?". I look for explanations, even coarse, of what's going on - what are the critical conditions that need to be preserved for the phenomenon to appear? What are the hard constraints? So yeah, I prefer less artistic but confusing analogies.
- xbar 6y ago
  I think you are right. These are marketing pieces, not journals. I do not think that's not bad at all. I am certain the journal article for this story satisfies demands of rigor. But I like being able to take this piece to my 10 year-old who may focus her 5th grade science project on yogurt and getting her inspired to be curious about the fluids she plays with every day.
  - teekert 6y ago
    Exactly, I mean you can just add a small animation of how evaporation in 1 component is faster and pushes the two-bubble structure in one direction. It runs untill it gets too cold (endothermic reaction). Or something like that.. but correct ;)

ignisrising 6y ago

I was excited for this article and then I read your comment and it... just makes sense what you wrote and now I'm not that excited. I'm thankful but at the same time I'm not