Teaching machines to understand – and summarize – text
We humans are swamped with text. It’s not just news and other timely information: Regular…
Karuna Pande Joshi and Tim FininJune 28, 2017
How data is transforming the music industry
Fifteen years ago, Steve Jobs introduced the iPod. Since then, most music fans have understood…
Why don’t people get it? Seven ways that communicating risk can fail
Many public conversations we have about science-related issues involve communicating risks: describing them, comparing them…
Rod LambertsJanuary 6, 2017
Ask a statistician: A variation of the birthday problem, part 2
Our latest 'Ask a statistician' question received not one but two different solutions. We published…
Brian TarranDecember 14, 2016
Is Christmas really coming earlier? Maybe, but not as early as August
A couple of years ago, I wrote an article in which I examined the evidence…
Nathan CunninghamNovember 28, 2016
Four possible explanations why most of the polls got the US election wrong
In the US presidential election, the final poll of polls compiled by Real Clear Politics…
Paul WhiteleyNovember 11, 2016
Closing the communications gap
Professor Dame Anne Glover has spent her entire career generating scientific knowledge; knowledge that has,…
Brian TarranSeptember 9, 2016
Ask a statistician: Why can we not predict earthquakes?
Hundreds of people have been killed since the start of the year as a result…
Brian TarranAugust 25, 2016
Chilcot, part 2: How Tony Blair fumbled Iraq’s child mortality statistics
At a dramatic moment in Tony Blair’s testimony before the Iraq Inquiry back in 2010,…
Michael SpagatJuly 14, 2016
Chilcot on Iraq’s civilian casualties
The chapter on civilian casualties in the Chilcot report is stuffed with interesting material to…
Michael SpagatJuly 12, 2016
Higher pay, lower income: the National Living Wage and benefit cuts
The introduction of a “National Living Wage (NLW)” at the beginning of this month marks…
Donald HirschApril 19, 2016
How happiness is challenging GDP as the measure of a country’s health
Denmark reclaimed its place as the happiest country in the world, according to the latest…
Paul AnandMarch 23, 2016
A game about correlations that’s more than just fun
If you haven’t played Guess The Correlation yet, you definitely should – but please read…
Brian TarranFebruary 9, 2016
Bacon, cancer, and the vital importance of statistical reasoning
In September 2015, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) International Agency for Research in Cancer (IARC)…
David SpiegelhalterJanuary 29, 2016
Voodoo polls are bad news: here’s how to spot and stop them
"Over a third of students ‘no longer wish to study medicine’ amid the junior doctors’…
Robert FordJanuary 20, 2016
Ask a statistician: What are the chances of World War III?
In the second instalment of our new 'Ask A Statistician' column, Peter McIntyre, a pharmaceutical…
Brian TarranJanuary 5, 2016
Politics is broken: The Guardian’s Alberto Nardelli on the fragmentation of party support
It’s almost the end of party conference season in the UK – a time in…
Brian TarranOctober 8, 2015
Running against the odds – The probabilities of the London Marathon ballot
The late Chris Brasher, founder of the London Marathon, described the event as the ‘Suburban…
Anthony HatswellOctober 6, 2015
Mind the gap: the digital divide and digital inclusion
Internet use is transforming almost every aspect of our public, private and work life. More…
David HirstSeptember 15, 2015
How has the sharing economy changed job security?
There has been a great deal of attention given to the development of the 'sharing…
Ian BrinkleySeptember 3, 2015
