Fixing the bridge between biologists and statisticians
Hi, all!
This website deals with statistic. “What’s new then?”, you might say. “There are plenty of websites like this out there!”. Yes, that is true. However, the new thing is that I am not a statistician. I am an applied biologist (a weed scientist, to be more precise) who has long been fascinated by the idea that natural phenomena might be described, interpreted and understood by using the universal language of mathematics. My PhD studies focused on nonlinear regression analysis and, ever since, my work has mainly involved biostatistics, data analyses, and modelling. In many respects, I have gradually turned myself into an applied statistician, developing a strong belief that biostatistics plays a fundamental role in scientific thinking.
Throughout my long teaching experience, I have often struggled to capture the attention of my students, who are biologists (or future biologists) and usually do not have either a strong interest in mathematics or a solid statistical background. Teaching them therefore requires great care and the use of clear, simple language. It often appears that, at least in my country, statistics and biology are two different worlds; my collegue Marcin Kozak, in one of his papers, noted that, “although efficient communication between biologists and statisticians is fundamental for the development of knowledge, there is indeed a problem in this respect”. He called this problem the “broken bridge” (Kozak 2016). The aim I am trying to pursue with this website is to help fix such a bridge; this is where the name of the blog comes from.
Perhaps my language may sometimes seem rough or overly simplistic; if you think I have crossed the threshold of decency, please drop me a line. Nevertheless, I hope this approach helps achieve the main goal of the blog: spreading a better awareness of the usefulness, beauty, and limitations of biostatistics as a fundamental scientific tool for reaching reliable conclusions.
This is an ongoing project. All blog posts are listed on the Home page of this website and can be searched by category and tag. You will also find a series of tutorials and a web book (in italian) in the dedicated sections (please visit the tutorials link). If you would like to contribute or comment, please, feel free to contact me at andrea.onofri@unipg.it.