virus
"A virus is like a thief who arrives at a factory he intends to rob possessing only two things - the tools to get inside, and some software that will make the factory turn out items he can use."
"A virus is like a blueprint and a cell is like a factory," said Dr. Kenneth Alexander, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Comer Children's Hospital at University of Chicago. "The virus carries in its own blueprints and says to the cell: Make this."
"The goal of a virus is to infiltrate the correct host cell, and then cause the host cell to manufacture more viruses" - Err, wrong. Viruses have no goals. A viroid is like a piece of paper that has instructions written on it that say "Make a copy of me". A virus is like a piece of paper that's placed inside a pretty box that says "Make a copy of me and but me inside a pretty box."
"Scientists have long recognized that not all strains of the flu find humans attractive targets. Some prefer pigs or birds. It turns out that the flu virus is like a piece of Velcro hunting for a companion swatch of Velcro to attach itself to."
"That's because a virus is like a Trojan horse: it cannot enter Troy on its own. However, if it is helped by the Trojan people - i.e. cellular factors such as proteins and enzymes - then it can enter. We want to identify the names and addresses of all the Trojan people. Perhaps among them we can discover one "person" whom we can use to stop the virus proliferating. Of course it must be a Trojan that is not significantly important for the processes taking place in Troy."
Yes indeed. A virus is a Trojan Horse that contains instructions/blue prints on how to mass produce more Trojan Horse. This analogy, assumes Troy is a factory that can replicate large wooden horses.
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.