Looking Out To Sea

Helen’s been doing some swotting for a “journal club” presentation and so we’ve been having some nice chats lately about genetics. I think I’ve heard the term single nucleotide polymorphism enough that I might remember what it means in future.

I’ve also been reading Steven Pinker’s The Stuff of Thought which I was given at Christmas. The two came together in this article which Helen forwarded — Pinker writing about “personal genomics” in the New York Times. It’s an enjoyable read and, to my eyes, quite level-headed.

The best bit, the bit that really latched its claws into me, was this sentence, in the final paragraph:

So if you are bitten by scientific or personal curiosity and can think in probabilities, by all means enjoy the fruits of personal genomics.

You see that? You’ve got no business learning about your genome if you’re not equipped to interpret the information — and the only information you’ll get is in terms of populations and probabilities.

You may think I’m being a bit harsh. But I don’t mean that in the sense of “you must be this tall to ride”. Height isn’t something you can change — but learning about the terms used in statistics, and then being faithful when talking about statistical data, is possible.

Normal Distribution
© Hendy Ongkodjojo

The alternative is to experience the full horror of misunderstanding which can be seen every day on the news stands. The Daily Mail’s science coverage has been proven to double risk of heart attack.

The media report statistical information very badly; and most people probably understand it just as well. All this despite the incredible relevance that “population” thinking has on modern people. Mark Liberman draws the comparison between our inability to think in terms of aggregate risk and medians and the same inability of hunter-gatherer tribes to understand basic counting. I honestly think that’s one of the most important things that Mark Liberman has written on Language Log, certainly on the subject of public understanding of science.

Unfortunately it’s not up to me or Mark Liberman how mathematics is taught or how newspapers cover stories relating to statistics. But it’s nice to see that Steven Pinker highlighted this issue in a popular newspaper.

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