Insisting on evidence in alternative medicine is hypocritical, isn’t it?

The website of BMJ Clinical Evidence seems to be popular with fans of alternative medicine (FAMs). That sounds like good news: it’s an excellent source, and one can learn a lot about EBM when studying it. But there is a problem: FAMs don’t seem to really study it (alternatively they do not have the power of comprehension to […]
Read the rest here: Insisting on evidence in alternative medicine is hypocritical, isn’t it?

Statistics and the law: the prosecutor’s fallacy

This post arose from a recent meeting at the Royal Society. It was organised by Julie Maxton to discuss the application of statistical methods to legal problems. I found myself sitting next to an Appeal Court Judge who wanted more explanation of the ideas. Here it is.

Some preliminaries 

The paper that I wrote recently was a [...]


Read the rest at: Statistics and the law: the prosecutor’s fallacy
DC's Improbable Science: Truth, falsehood and evidence: investigations of dubious and dishonest science

The perils of P values, in Chalkdust magazine

Chalkdust is a magazine published by students of maths from UCL Mathematics department. Judging by its first issue, it’s an excellent vehicle for popularisation of maths. I have a piece in the second issue

You can view the whole second issue on line, or download a pdf of the whole issue. Or a pdf of my [...]


Read the rest at: The perils of P values, in Chalkdust magazine
DC's Improbable Science: Truth, falsehood and evidence: investigations of dubious and dishonest science 

The jelly bean problem - WWDDTYDTY

If you’ve wondered why we are so skeptical about the studies that WDDTY cites (at least those where WDDTY does not misrepresent the findings, which is alarmingly common) then you may not understand the “jelly bean problem”...

Read on: The jelly bean problem - WWDDTYDTY