Brian Tarran, Author at Significance magazine

News

Shortlist announced for Young Statisticians Writing Competition

It's been another year of strong submissions for the Young Statisticians Writing Competition - our…

Brian TarranJuly 14, 2015

Archive

Welcome to DotCity: a game about demography, built using R

Statisticians swear by R. The programming language is described by Tal Galili of the R-Statistics…

Brian TarranJuly 2, 2015

Archive

Will this century see a devastating meteor strike?

On 30 June 1908, a meteor with a diameter of up to 180 metres exploded…

Brian TarranJune 30, 2015

News

Making mistakes, minimising error – June 2015 issue preview

There are many opportunities for us to make wrong decisions in life – whether it…

Brian TarranJune 16, 2015

Archive

Five things we learned at the RSS #immigrationfacts debate

One of the more interesting dynamics in British politics in recent years has been the…

Brian TarranApril 28, 2015

Archive

R-nought: epidemiology’s vital statistic

Credit: Jessica Seldon/DFID At the start of a disease outbreak, there is one statistic epidemiologists…

Brian TarranApril 20, 2015

News

Popularity contests and predictions – April 2015 issue preview

We are heading for a general election here in the UK, which means the news…

Brian TarranApril 15, 2015

Archive

A long-range forecast for the UK general election

What do you get if you ask a Labour Party pollster and a Conservative Party…

Brian TarranMarch 18, 2015

News

Are long exams impeding the progress of Western civilisation? February issue preview

For many of us, exams are unavoidable. Whether for school or work, we're expected to…

Brian TarranFebruary 4, 2015

News

Opening the archives: a significant development

Significance was launched in March 2004 with a clear remit: to demonstrate the importance of…

Brian TarranJanuary 28, 2015

Archive

Knowledge in focus: a Q&A with David McCandless

You might not know David McCandless by name, but you'd recognise his work on sight:…

Brian TarranJanuary 12, 2015

News

Our top ten ‘most read’ of 2014

The Significance team is about the head home for the Christmas holidays - but we…

Brian TarranDecember 22, 2014

News

Meteorites, dark matter and statistics – December issue preview

What are the chances of a deadly meteor strike? It's a question that has concerned…

Brian TarranDecember 3, 2014

Archive

How Turing – and Bayes – cracked Enigma

Tomorrow sees the release of The Imitation Game, a film chronicling the work of mathematician…

Brian TarranNovember 13, 2014

Archive

The weight of expectations: a Q&A with Jasper Fforde

Do certain things happen because we expect them to happen? Jasper Fforde suggests so. The…

Brian TarranOctober 30, 2014

News

Nowhere to hide? – October issue preview

Shared and open data promise to create big opportunities for business, science and society -…

Brian TarranOctober 6, 2014

Archive

Tim Harford, and the perils of big data

Welcome to the big data future. Correlation is in, causation is out. Old statistical sampling…

Brian TarranOctober 3, 2014

Archive

The best statistics book you’ve read this year?

Statistics plays a role in all walks of life - including literature. So, for our…

Brian TarranSeptember 22, 2014

News

The birthday problem: lessons in probability from the magazine archive

Not long after joining Significance, having taken up residence in the Royal Statistical Society's (RSS)…

Brian TarranSeptember 18, 2014

News

The winner of the Young Statisticians Writing Competition 2014 is announced

The winner of the Young Statisticians Writing Competition, jointly organised by Significance and the Young…

Brian TarranSeptember 3, 2014