resources
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presentations
Let me tell you about something.
lunch break
Distractions and amusements, with a sandwich and coffee.
writing
Writing
Poetry
Inked Sadness is a collection of poems written in that difficult time between being no longer young, but not yet old.
Expressions and Conversations of Love are short heart-breakers.
Scripts
Proverbial Man considers how our names and expectations limit our perceptions and freedoms. No answers are offered. I don't think I finished this.
The Surrogate echoes my own fears of fleeing from Poland in the early 80s. Or at least the fears I retroactively erected, to add drama. Count on the Polish for drama.
Narrative
Thirty Reasons should be enough to decide a place isn't worth returning to.
news + thoughts
Wired Data|Life 2013 talk
I recently presented at the Wired Data|Life 2013 conference, sharing my thoughts on The Art and Science of Data Visualization.
For specialists, visualizations should expose detail to allow for exploration and inspiration. For enthusiasts, they should provide context, integrate facts and inform. For the layperson, they should capture the essence of the topic, narrate a story and deligt.
Wired's Brandon Keim wrote up a short article about me and some of my work—Circle of Life: The Beautiful New Way to Visualize Biological Data.
Power and Sample Size
Experimental designs that lack power cannot reliably detect real effects. Power of statistical tests is largely unappreciated and many underpowered studies continue to be published.
This month, Naomi and I explain what power is, how it relates to Type I and Type II errors and sample size. By understanding the relationship between these quantities you can design a study that has both low false positive rate and high power.
Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2013) Points of Significance: Power and Sample Size Nature Methods 12:1139-1140.
20 imperatives of science—limits of evidence
20 Tips for Interpreting Scientific Claims is a wonderful comment in Nature warning us about the limits of evidence.
I've made a poster (download hires PDF, PNG) of this list, grouping them into categories that are my own. Thrust this into everyone's hands, including your own.
Sutherland WJ, Spiegelhalter D & Burgman M (2013) Policy: Twenty tips for interpreting scientific claims. Nature 503:335–337.
Significance, P values and t-tests
Have you wondered how statistical tests work? Why does everyone want such a small P value?
This month, Naomi and I explain how significance is measured in statistics and remind you that it does not imply biological significance. You'll also learn why the t-distribution is so important and why its shape is similar to that of a normal distribution, but not quite.
Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2013) Points of Significance: Significance, P values and t-tests Nature Methods 11:1041-1042.