Ecfrasi comes from the Ancient Greek ἔκφρασις (ékphrasis, “description”), which indicates a is a rhetorical device indicating the written description of an artistic item.
The Italian writer Antonio Tabucchi says in his short story “La traduzione” (I volatili del Beato Angelico, Sellerio editore, 1987) that translating is like an ecfrasi: the translators sees the message in one language, and describes it into another.
Communicating science is the same. The communicator, or journalist, sees the science, and describes it to the others. Science is, like artifacts, a human product.