MARY CATHERINE BATESON

"Metaphor" means "to transfer." Like stories, metaphors subconsciously encode complex ideas.

We find metaphors so gripping because we process them with sense or motor imagery in terms of those physical experiences. For instance, "I saw the light" or "I ran out of time....

A controversial palaeontologist thinks we might have all the DNA necessary to recreate dinosaurs - in chickens.

Scientists managed to tweak poultry DNA to grow alligator-like teeth and a dinosaur-like snout instead of a beak. The creatures would not be recreations of a once-extinct species...

Metaphors use familiar objects and phenomena to help think through and talk about abstract ideas.

Although metaphors can illustrate ideas and provide insight, they can also limit them. There comes a point when the limits they impose will outweigh the understanding they pro...