Randomness
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Love affair with statistics gives science a significant problem
Scientists love statistical significance. It offers a way to test hypotheses. It’s a ticket to publishing, to media coverage, to tenure. It’s also a crock — statistically speaking, anyway. You know the idea. When scientists perform an experiment and their data suggest an important result — say, that watching TV causes influenza — there’s always the nagging concern that the finding […]
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For what you want to know, Bayes offers superior stats
It turns out that the old adage about statistics and damned lies wasn’t a joke. Sticks and stones may be bonebreakers, and words inflict no (physical) pain, but numbers can kill. In 2004, for instance, a statistical analysis suggested that antidepressant drugs raised the risk of suicide in youngsters and adolescents, leading the U.S. Food […]
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