In this passage from The Great Influenza, by John M. Barry, the use of figurative language, imagery, anaphora and parallelism, symbolism and exclusionary tone words to characterize scientific research as a dynamic, tedious, and calculated field of study that requires a variety of personality traits including curiosity, patience, and creativity. Moreover, uncertainty is identified as a central theme and elaborated on as being a necessary part to the process of scientific experimentation.
Throughout this essay, Barry uses figurative language, such as extended metaphor, to downplay the severity of decisions that scientists face. For instance, “Would a pick be best, or would dynamite work better- or would dynamite be too indiscriminately destructive?”…