Cliches 2

In space, everything hurtles

Sometimes writers try and make dull old science exciting.
painstaking: It has taken doctors nine months of painstaking work to construct (the patient's new nose). (BBC News 2013-09-26) Scientific breakthroughs usually take place “after two years of painstaking research”.

Distant galaxies were hurtling through space… galaxies were discovered that were all hurtling away from our earth. (Horizon)
For years, Voyager has been hurtling away from the solar system. (BBC Breakfast 2013-09-13)
In science stories, Curiosity rover sucks, gulps or sniffs Mars’s atmosphere, rather than inhaling or sampling the stuff.
One of the biggest canyons in the world has been found beneath the ice sheet that smothers most of Greenland. Before the ice sheet was formed it would have contained a river gushing into the Arctic Ocean. (BBC)
The relentless hunt for offshore oil continues. (BBC News 2013-08-05)

corrosive: Clegg calls GTA V "corrosive".
We neutralize the corrosive bourgeois preoccupation with luxury that can so often threaten the creativity which drives real fashion. (Gloss, via Slate Sept 2013)

shrink: Prices have a habit of shrinking. (BBC News Numbers can only rise or fall.)
explode: 3D printing will explode in 2014 (@BorutVovsek) How about "take off"?
explosive growth: try “runaway”
jump in the number of: sharp rise

X restored my faith in human nature. (Opposite of “lulled me into a false sense of security”.)
spittle-flecked outrage: Someone you disagree with complains about something. (This is also hyperbole.)
unveil: Manuel Pellegrini… “officially unveiled as the new manager of Manchester City,” and I imagined the Queen pulling on a silken rope attached to the velvet cloth covering Mr Pellegrini’s head. (Simon Hoggart, Guardian 2013-07-13)

big: The mammoths now face a huge battle for survival. (Alice Roberts)
closely guarded: what secrets are
drag on for years: what the war in Syria may do
former glory: what buildings, parks, towns and areas are restored to
rapid: growth always is
roam: What mammoths do (sometimes “over a vast area”)
standstill: what cities are brought to in an uprising, earthquake etc
striking: what resemblances are
string: criminals have a "string of" previous offences
tear through: what fires do to buildings and cities

More here, and links to the rest.