The Challenge of Selection Bias

In a recent opinion piece—Generous Republican Benefits—in the New York Times, Jennifer Senior makes the point that, although Republicans tend to be against the government requiring employers to offer paid parental leave, Republican senators are not against paid...

Popular Allergy, Sleep Medicines and Dementia: A Risk?

Responding to a new study in JAMA Internal Medicine linking certain drugs to dementia, The Daily Mail ran with the headline: “Popular sleep remedies and hayfever pills ‘increase risk of Alzheimer’s by more than 50%.’” It’s not clear whom the Daily...

Climate Change, Statistical Significance, and Science

  A recent plea for scientists to “stop playing dumb on climate change” shows why The New York Times Op Ed page needs a statistician. Recently, the New York Times published an opinion piece Playing Dumb on Climate Change by Naomi Oreskes, a professor of the...

Is Precision Overrated?

  A historian of science strikes a Swiftian pose in The New York Times: statistically scrupulous scientists need to get their heads out of the clouds on climate change. But maybe that’s—precisely—where they need to be.   “He first took my Altitude by a...

Can Selfies Save Nutrition Science?

  Hundreds, possibly thousands of health studies may be wrong because researchers ignored human fallibility   You may have never heard of the Energy Balance Working Group, but this collection of 45 experts on nutrition, exercise, biochemistry, and other...