cell biology
"Imagine a crowded rock concert. You are directly in front of the stage, but your cute date is stuck behind an enormous mass of moving people. As your date pushes and squeezes through the crowd, you worry about other attractive fans stealing your date's attention. Will your date make it through all those packed people? Believe it or not, this is an important question in cellular biology!"
"Work in cell biology is like surfing at the seaside. You get carried away on the crest of a wave and then drop when your ideas crash. Then what do you do? Like surfers you go out and try again! Although their actual work is often driven by the organisation paying them, deep down cell biologists are themselves driven by a curiosity about the nature of life."
METAMIA is a free database of analogy and metaphor. Anyone can contribute or search. The subject matter can be anything. Science is popular, but poetry is encouraged. The goal is to integrate our fluid muses with the stark literalism of a relational database. Metamia is like a girdle for your muses, a cognitive girdle.