Customer Reviews

The Analysis of Biological Data

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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INTRO BIOSTATISTICS PROFESSORS: I implore you, MAKE THIS THE REQUIRED TEXTBOOK FOR YOUR CLASS. I was deeply unimpressed with my biostatistics professor this semester, but am sure that no matter how good a professor you are, this book can still make your class even better for your students. I found myself thinking that, even if I had gained next to nothing from the lectures, I had at least gotten a fantastic textbook out of the class.

This textbook is both wonderfully informative and - something that has been said by very few people not destined to graduate with a degree in biostatistics, I'd wager - actually enthralling. Over and over, I was excited to see what the results of the examples were, ended up doing unnecessary practice questions just to see what they found out. (The consistency with which every single data set and experiment mentioned in the book is interesting is boggling.)

And the book makes sense! The book is very well-written and well-worded, with highly understandable explanations (and a sense of humor to ease frustration). Additionally, the math is accessible and understandable, even for those (like myself) who remember nearly nothing of calculus and have very poor mathematical intuition. For those more interested in the mathematical underpinnings, however, the book doesn't shy away from the proofs and functions - even when it admits that, at this point, tests are going to be completely computerized anyway.

I came into statistics knowing nothing but a general feeling of unease and frustration. Thanks mostly to this textbook, statistics seems actively *exciting* to me, and makes a lot of sense. I highly recommend it, for all levels of interest and skill.

The book teaches complex statistics using biological examples. It has the tendency to make complicated knowledge quite attainable for students new to statistics. I highly recommend this text for anyone wishing to learn statistics but lacks statistical background.

I found this book very useful.I got this bbok for my coursework in Biostatistics and It helped me to gain deep knowledge on the concepts of ANOVA, t tests, regression , correlation and basic statistics. the solved example problems are very clear and explainable. The authors made this book a concise stat book for the beginners in statistics. I would definitely suggest this book for the beginners in statistics

My initial thoughts before signing up for a required statistics college course were that this subject would be very math intensive, difficult to understand, and one that I would soon forget after the course. This book, however, made the subject of statistics very straightforward for a science major like me. While the math is fairly intense, I was surprised at the way the concepts behind the math were presented and how statistics was tied to the broader focus of effective experimental design. We used this book along with SPSS(statisical software) and I can say that I'm confident enough now to perform basic studies on my own. While I certainly will not remember the specific equations behind the various statisical tests, I certainly will remember the constitution of effective experimental design and the various assumption and pitfalls of statistical tests. The book itself is very readable, and includes specific examples from contemporary biological studies. The authors also have a good sense of humor. This book is essential for a science-major oriented statistical course. The book effectively accomplishes the objectives in the preface
Interesting Biology Examples, Intuitive explanation of key concepts, practical data analysis and experimental design, up to date basics, modern topics, and useful summaries/charts of concepts.
I'm amazed at how one can use an introductory book like this as a reference to point out flaws in highly academic, experimental studies in the scientific mainstream today.

Had to purchase this book for a class. The price was the best I found and even though it said it was used, it came shrink wrapped and appeared brand-new (score!). The book itself does a pretty good job of explaining the concepts. Coming from a math background, I find it to be a bit long-winded and I definitely can get by with just skimming rather than actually reading everything. This might be helpful for those who do not have a strong stat/math background though. Overall I would recommend, and definitely purchase here again.