Christmas music: Rockin’ around the data tree
To heroically understate the situation, I am not personally a fan of Christmas music. But…
Glenn McDonaldDecember 9, 2014
Do NHS records reflect patient ethnicity?
When registering with a doctor’s surgery or booking a medical test at a hospital, the…
A survey of stats education in UK journalism
Statistics and journalism go hand-in-hand. Whether reporting on current trends, relaying political statements, or dissecting…
Richard KemenyNovember 27, 2014
Are we facing another financial crisis?
Taken at face value, David Cameron’s warning this week about risks in the global economy…
Steve KeenNovember 20, 2014
How many British immigrants are there in other countries?
The British public is obsessed with immigration. The notion of Johnny Foreigner coming over here,…
Oz FlanaganNovember 18, 2014
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
Does Christmas really come earlier every year?
It has become something of a cliché to remark upon the ever earlier arrival of…
Nathan CunninghamNovember 11, 2014
The Ebola epidemic is not subsiding any time soon
This year’s Ebola epidemic is one of the largest the world has ever seen, affecting…
Salil MehtaNovember 10, 2014
How generous has the world’s Ebola response been?
The current outbreak of Ebola in West Africa started over a year ago with a…
Francis Smart & Mario Cortina BorjaOctober 31, 2014
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
Is prostitution really worth £5.7 billion a year?
The EU has demanded rapid payment of £1.7 billion from the UK because our economy…
David SpiegelhalterOctober 27, 2014
Can a gamble ever be right or wrong?
A few weeks back I was feeling fairly smug, having put a bit of money…
Robin EvansOctober 24, 2014
How theft and robbery have changed since the 90s
Contrary to popular opinion, we have witnessed a fall in many types of crime over…
Rebecca ThompsonOctober 21, 2014
Public health – not all evidence is created equal
When I think ‘public health’ this week, two stories spring to mind - Ebola and…
Timandra HarknessOctober 15, 2014
When might we see a Marathon world record of less than two hours?
Last month in Berlin, Kenyan athlete Dennis Kimetto broke the men’s Marathon world record running…
Mario Cortina BorjaOctober 13, 2014
Does New York City really have as many rats as people?
New York City’s rat problem is infamous. The media describes a metropolis under never-ending siege…
Jonathan AuerbachOctober 10, 2014
With fewer resources, we’re finding clever ways to map river blindness in Africa
Onchocerciasis, or river blindness as it’s more commonly known, is a major public health problem…
Peter DiggleOctober 7, 2014
Review aggregators: the trouble with replacing critics with consensus
Earlier this summer I went to a panel debate on the future of criticism in…
Oz FlanaganOctober 3, 2014
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
The sounds of places: mapping the world’s musical taste
At Spotify, where I work, we have listeners in a large and growing numbers of…
Glenn McDonaldSeptember 29, 2014
