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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 530
EAN: 9780805071344
ISBN: 0805071342
Label: Owl Books
Manufacturer: Owl Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: May 01, 2002
Publisher: Owl Books
Sales Rank: 11650
Studio: Owl Books
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
At a summer tea party in Cambridge, England, a guest states that tea poured into milk tastes different from milk poured into tea. Her notion is shouted down by the scientific minds of the group. But one man, Ronald Fisher, proposes to scientifically test the hypothesis. There is no better person to conduct such an experiment, for Fisher is a pioneer in the field of statistics. The Lady Tasting Tea spotlights not only Fishers theories but also the revolutionary ideas of dozens of men and women which affect our modern everyday lives. Writing with verve and wit, David Salsburg traces breakthroughs ranging from the rise and fall of Karl Pearsons theories to the methods of quality control that rebuilt postwar Japans economy, including a pivotal early study on the capacity of a small beer cask at the Guinness brewing factory. Brimming with intriguing tidbits and colorful characters, The Lady Tasting Tea salutes the spirit of those who dared to look at the world in a new way.
Amazon.com Review:
Science is inextricably linked with mathematics. Statistician David Salsburg examines the development of ever-more-powerful statistical methods for determining scientific truth in The Lady Tasting Tea, a series of historical and biographical sketches that illuminate without alienating the mathematically timid. Salsburg, who has worked in academia and industry and has met many of the major players he writes about, shares his subjects' enthusiasm for problem solving and deep thinking. His sense of excitement drives the prose, but never at the expense of the reader; if anything, the author has taken pains to eliminate esoterica and ephemera from his stories. This might frustrate a few number-head readers, but the abundant notes and references should keep them happy in the library for weeks after reading the book.
Ultimately, the various tales herein are unified in a single theme: the conversion of science from observational natural history into rigorously defined statistical models of data collection and analysis. This process, usually only implicit in studies of scientific methods and history, is especially important now that we seem to be reaching the point of diminishing returns and are looking for new paradigms of scientific investigation. The Lady Tasting Tea will appeal to a broad audience of scientifically literate readers, reminding them of the humanity underlying the work. --Rob Lightner
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A walk down memory lane, if you already have the memories...
This book reads like your grandfather's leisurely and meandering retelling of your family history. Like your grandfather's tales, it seems to have been motivated by a specific question (here, the subtitle, "how statistics revolutionized science in the twentieth century"), but after a good initial effort to answer that question, it gets sidetracked into tidbits and trivia about the characters in the story until they become the main focus. As when you listen to your grandfather, this is quite enjoyable, provided that you already know who these people are, and you already feel that their story is relevant to you. Just as your grandfather tries to provide some historical perspective but ultimately prefers to just revisit his memories, this book provides some context to why the work these people did was important, but it is only a sketch that will leave the uninitiated scratching their heads while those with the same background will knod in agreement as they fill in the missing details from their own memories. Finally, though you leave with a well-rounded impression of some of the cast, the description of others borders on being a vague panegyric. At the end, your original question is briefly reconsidered, but the answer is unsatisfying and leaves you with the impression that grandpa really just wanted to walk down memory lane.
If you read this book, you should do so because you want to know more about the people whose names you have read throughout your education and work in statistics. ... Read More
Rating:  - Amazing
To read the book was a beautiful experience. So many crucial things of statistic history presented as short and clear stories.
In some chapters I could, at last, understand difficult concepts (martingale, fuzzy).
I did want the book never ended, and I have not english as my first language (So forgive my mistakes in Shakespeare language)
Rating: - Great book on the history of statistics in the 20th Century
This is the best book I've found on the recent history of statistics. The book has a lot of detail about the rolls that Pearson, Fisher, Neymam, Bayes, Tukey and others played in the development of statistical theory and practice. The book does a good job of detailing the utility of statistical theory while pointing out the well-known flaws of null hypothesis testing.
Rating: - Inspiring!
I really enjoyed this book.
It makes you understand that science is not perfect, that not everybody agrees or thinks the same about the issues, and that there is always much to be done.
It was interesting to know a little of the lives of the people behind the ideas, and also how often the desire to resolve practical matters pulls science.
Rating: - a biostatisticians view of 20th century statistics
The Lady Tasting Tea is a new book by David Salsburg (a Ph.D. mathematical statistician, who recently retired from Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in Connecticut). The title of the book is taken from the famous example that R. A. Fisher used in his book "The Design of Experiments" to express the ideas and principles of statistical design to answer research questions. The subtitle "How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century" really tells what the book is about. The author relates the statistical developments of the 20th Century through descriptions of the famous statisticians and the problems they studied.
The author conveys this from the perspective of a statistician with good theoretical training and much experience in academia and industry. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and a retired Senior Research Fellow from Pfizer has published three technical books and over 50 journal articles and has taught statistics at various universities including the Harvard School of Public Health, the University of Connecticut and the University of Pennsylvania.
This book is written in layman's terms and is intended for scientists and medical researchers as well as for statistician who are interested in the history of statistics. It just was published in early 2001. On the back-cover there are glowing words of praise from the epidemiologist Alvan Feinstein and from statisticians Barbara Bailar and Brad Efron. After reading their comments I decided to buy it and ... Read More
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