Definition
Biostatistics is the application of probability and statistical techniques to the biological sciences. Probability has played a significant role in areas like genetics where combinatorics validate conjectures about the relationships of genes and the environment. Recently, combinatorics has become one of the main approaches to solving problems e.g., motif discovery in bioinformatics. In the nineteenth century, well-known biologists like Herman von Helmholtz advocated that biological phenomenon could be understood using techniques in the physical sciences (remnants of this view still are present today). That approach, together with the “vitalism” movement [3] impeded the use of statistics. By the beginning of this century, however, statistics has become de rigueur in virtually all biological publications.
Historical Background
Although statistics as a mathematical area can be traced further, biostatistics is often associated with the work of Francis Galton (1822–1911). His...
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Recommended Reading
Lee P.M. Bayesian Statistics, 2nd Ed. Arnold, 2003.
Lindley D.V. and Scott W.F. New Cambridge Statistics Tables 2nd Ed. Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Myers C.S. Vitalism: A Brief Historical and Critical Review. Mind, 9(35):319–331, 1900.
Neapolitan R.E. Learning Bayesian Networks. Prentice Hall, 2003.
Sokal R. and Rohlf F.J. Biometry. W.H. Freeman and Company, NY, 3rd edition, 1995.
von Mises R. Probability, Statistics, and Truth. 1939. Translated by J. Neyman and D. Scholl and E. Rabinowitsch.
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Dalkıiliıç, M. (2009). Biostatistics and Data Analysis. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_639
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_639
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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