Is. "Everybody" is taken as singular.
A simile can be found when using "like" or "as" between two things. Example: I'm as happy as a clown.
Your question would be a metaphor. Both things are being compared to a science expieriment, probably meaning that they need to have an outcome, but it isn't known for sure if it will be a good or bad outcome.
Things like this can be taken many ways, so if you think something else, I'm sure it would work as well.
Movie people are able to write up how they want a scene to look like, then they can use things like backgrounds and crops to make a visual representation of how they want their scene to look like. Authors don't have things like props and backgrounds, so they have to put a lot of detail into their writing for readers to visualize.
Answer:
blue whale
if it's a land animal then it's an elephant
