Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #142650 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Science is inextricably linked with mathematics. Statistician David Salsburg examines the development of ever-more-powerful statistical methods for determining scientific truth in The Lady Tasting Tea, a series of historical and biographical sketches that illuminates without alienating the mathematically timid. Salsburg, who has worked in academia and industry and has met many of the major players he writes about, shares his subjects' enthusiasm for problem solving and deep thinking. This drives his prose, but never at the expense of the reader; if anything, the author has taken pains to eliminate esoterica and ephemera from his stories. This might frustrate a few number-head readers, but the abundant notes and references should keep them happy in the library for weeks after reading the book.

Ultimately, the various tales herein are unified in a single theme: the conversion of science from observational natural history into rigorously defined statistical models of data collection and analysis. This process, usually only implicit in studies of scientific methods and history, is especially important now that we seem to be reaching the point of diminishing returns and are looking for new paradigms of scientific investigation. The Lady Tasting Tea will appeal to a broad audience of scientifically literate readers, reminding them of the humanity underlying the work. --Rob Lightner

Customer Reviews

Bringing statstics to live
David Salsburg has an amazing knowledge of the historic
developement of statistics during the last century. He presents
the lifes of inumerable contributors to the field and the
unfolding of probabilistic and statistical ideas in an intimate
way. The reader might feel as if he/she were present whenever
anything relevant in statistics had happend. Many of the life
stories were touching and I had the feeling of reading an
epic novel. But the many math terms, explained easily (no formulas,

due to the authors wife), or the tragical historic facts of wars
and depressions or the low probability of a person
understanding probability always remaind one of the the funny
reality mixup of mathematics and the physical world.

The stories about the people behind the numbers
This is an excellent book, which tells the stories and anecdotes behind the statistics. The tales of the long acrimony between Pearson and Fisher is explained (and how this extended to Neyman). The story of the tea tasting episode (form which the title is taken) is revealed. The author wasn't there, but he did speak to someone who was there.

If you are interested in statistical analysis, and why we do the analysis that we do, this is a fantastic book.

My one problem with the book (and it's a small one) is that the book does not give any mathematics at all. This is to avoid putting off the mathematically timid, but if you aren't interested, and don't know at least a little about, statistics, why would the book interest you?