Lecture 1 Introduction

Eamonn Mallon

embl

women_linux

Figure showing R's increasing popularity

Figure showing R's increasing popularity

Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write

Figure showing R's increasing popularity

Chair: if “good” requires pupil performance to exceed the national average, and if all schools must be good, how is this mathematically possible?

Michael Gove: By getting better all the time.

Chair: So it is possible, is it?

Michael Gove: It is possible to get better all the time.

Chair: Were you better at literacy than numeracy, Secretary of State?

Michael Gove: I cannot remember.

Excel (http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/wiki/pub/Main/TheresaScott/StatsInExcel.TAScott.slides.pdf)
SPSS, Stata, Minitab, Graphpad prism ($150.00/year/user)
Python (more general, free)
R (free)

Figure showing R's increasing popularity

R is one of the fastest growing languages

hist(mtcars$mpg)

plot of chunk unnamed-chunk-1

Why do we do statistics? Separating signal from noise
R is a useful thing to learn
A properly designed experiment can always be analysed, no amount of stats will save a poor experiment
A few statistical techniques to get you started
A burning desire to come and do the second year course

-BS1040

-BS1070/MS1080