The metaphorical system of the social group comprising virologists involved in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) research at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany, is reconstructed by analysis of corpora of lectures with discussion (N * 20-25 attenders), 75-minute interviews (N * 11), and written texts referred to in interviews. Each interview is divided into four parts: (1) Ss' research problem, (2) commentary on a pictorial representation of (1), (3) explanations of virus-cell interactions to imaginary expert and preschool interlocutors, and (4) information sources and metaphors noticed by Ss. Spoken corpora are analyzed in the idealized cognitive model framework developed by George Lakoff (1987); results permit the mapping of a metaphoric domain of virological HIV research containing metaphor models based on the source domains of transport, production, computer, and communication. The source domain of war, prevalent in specialized texts on immunology, is marginal in this S group. (Copyright 1997, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.) (LLBA 1997, vol. 31, n. 3)