Metaphors are more than sophisticated poetic embellishments – they shape our everyday lives in the way we speak, understand and act. A metaphor is a gateway between a known concept and a new dimension: it is this collision between disparate ideas that can transform confusion into comprehension. While metaphors are essential elements of the scicomm-toolbox, they are always imperfect (“all metaphors leak”). Knowing a metaphor’s limitations is necessary to prevent the audience from being misled.

In this workshop, a metaphor researcher and two science storytellers will guide participants in exploring the power of metaphors for understanding and explaining complex ideas. Fun and playful exercises will act as an introduction to translational thinking and we will then create metaphors to represent, explain, and understand a series of hot scientific topics, such as gene editing or gravitational waves.