The effective design of scientific experiments is critical to success, yet graduate students receive very little formal training in how to do it. Based on a well-received course taught by the author, Experimental Design for Biologistsfills this gap. Experimental Design for Biologistsexplains how to establish the framework for an experimental project, how to set up a system, design experiments within that system, and how to determine and use the correct set of controls. Separate chapters are devoted to negative controls, positive controls, and other categories of controls that are perhaps less recognized, such as “assumption controls†and “experimentalist controls†. Furthermore, there are sections on establishing the experimental system, which include performing critical “system controls†. Should all experimental plans be hypothesis-driven? Is a question/answer approach more appropriate? What was the hypothesis behind the Human Genome Project? What color is the sky? How does one get to Carnegie Hall? The answers to these kinds of questions can be found in Experimental Design for Biologists. Written in an engaging manner, the book provides compelling lessons in framing an experimental question, establishing a validated system to answer the question, and deriving verifiable models from experimental data. Experimental Design for Biologistsis an essential source of theory and practical guidance in designing a research plan.
Specifically intended for lab-based biomedical researchers, this practical guide shows how to design experiments that are reproducible, with low bias, high precision, and widely applicable results. With specific examples from research using both cell cultures and model organisms, it explores key ideas in experimental design, assesses common designs, and shows how to plan a successful experiment. It demonstrates how to control biological and technical factors that can introduce bias or add noise, and covers rarely discussed topics such as graphical data exploration, choosing outcome variables, data quality control checks, and data pre-processing. It also shows how to use R for analysis, and is designed for those with no prior experience. An accompanying website (https://stanlazic.github.io/EDLB.html) includes all R code, data sets, and the labstats R package. This is an ideal guide for anyone conducting lab-based biological research, from students to principle investigators working in either academia or industry.
Providing students with clear and practical advice on how best to organise experiments and collect data so as to make the subsequent analysis easier and their conclusions more robust, this text assumes no specialist knowledge.
This illustrated textbook for biologists provides a refreshingly clear and authoritative introduction to the key ideas of sampling, experimental design, and statistical analysis. The author presents statistical concepts through common sense, non-mathematical explanations and diagrams. These are followed by the relevant formulae and illustrated by w
Written in simple language with relevant examples, this illustrative introductory book presents best practices in experimental design and simple data analysis. Taking a practical and intuitive approach, it only uses mathematical formulae to formalize the methods where necessary and appropriate. The text features extended discussions of examples that include real data sets arising from research. The authors analyze data in detail to illustrate the use of basic formulae for simple examples while using the GenStat statistical package for more complex examples. Each chapter offers instructions on how to obtain the example analyses in GenStat and R.
R — the statistical and graphical environment is rapidly emerging as an important set of teaching and research tools for biologists. This book draws upon the popularity and free availability of R to couple the theory and practice of biostatistics into a single treatment, so as to provide a textbook for biologists learning statistics, R, or both. An abridged description of biostatistical principles and analysis sequence keys are combined together with worked examples of the practical use of R into a complete practical guide to designing and analyzing real biological research. Topics covered include: simple hypothesis testing, graphing exploratory data analysis and graphical summaries regression (linear, multi and non-linear) simple and complex ANOVA and ANCOVA designs (including nested, factorial, blocking, spit-plot and repeated measures) frequency analysis and generalized linear models. Linear mixed effects modeling is also incorporated extensively throughout as an alternative to traditional modeling techniques. The book is accompanied by a companion website www.wiley.com/go/logan/r with an extensive set of resources comprising all R scripts and data sets used in the book, additional worked examples, the biology package, and other instructional materials and links.
Makes mathematical and statistical analysis understandable to even the least math-minded biology student This unique textbook aims to demystify statistical formulae for the average biology student. Written in a lively and engaging style, Statistics for Terrified Biologists, 2nd Edition draws on the author’s 30 years of lecturing experience to teach statistical methods to even the most guarded of biology students. It presents basic methods using straightforward, jargon-free language. Students are taught to use simple formulae and how to interpret what is being measured with each test and statistic, while at the same time learning to recognize overall patterns and guiding principles. Complemented by simple examples and useful case studies, this is an ideal statistics resource tool for undergraduate biology and environmental science students who lack confidence in their mathematical abilities. Statistics for Terrified Biologists presents readers with the basic foundations of parametric statistics, the t-test, analysis of variance, linear regression and chi-square, and guides them to important extensions of these techniques. It introduces them to non-parametric tests, and includes a checklist of non-parametric methods linked to their parametric counterparts. The book also provides many end-of-chapter summaries and additional exercises to help readers understand and practice what they’ve learned. Presented in a clear and easy-to-understand style Makes statistics tangible and enjoyable for even the most hesitant student Features multiple formulas to facilitate comprehension Written by of the foremost entomologists of his generation This second edition of Statistics for Terrified Biologists is an invaluable guide that will be of great benefit to pre-health and biology undergraduate students.
Quantitative bioimaging is a broad interdisciplinary field that exploits tools from biology, chemistry, optics, and statistical data analysis for the design and implementation of investigations of biological processes. Instead of adopting the traditional approach of focusing on just one of the component disciplines, this textbook provides a unique introduction to quantitative bioimaging that presents all of the disciplines in an integrated manner. The wide range of topics covered include basic concepts in molecular and cellular biology, relevant aspects of antibody technology, instrumentation and experimental design in fluorescence microscopy, introductory geometrical optics and diffraction theory, and parameter estimation and information theory for the analysis of stochastic data. Key Features: Comprises four parts, the first of which provides an overview of the topics that are developed from fundamental principles to more advanced levels in the other parts. Presents in the second part an in-depth introduction to the relevant background in molecular and cellular biology and in physical chemistry, which should be particularly useful for students without a formal background in these subjects. Provides in the third part a detailed treatment of microscopy techniques and optics, again starting from basic principles. Introduces in the fourth part modern statistical approaches to the determination of parameters of interest from microscopy data, in particular data generated by single molecule microscopy experiments. Uses two topics related to protein trafficking (transferrin trafficking and FcRn-mediated antibody trafficking) throughout the text to motivate and illustrate microscopy techniques. An online appendix providing the background and derivations for various mathematical results presented or used in the text is available at http://www.routledge.com/9781138598980.
Inspired by the author's need for practical guidance in the processes of data analysis, A Practical Guide to Scientific Data Analysis has been written as a statistical companion for the working scientist. This handbook of data analysis with worked examples focuses on the application of mathematical and statistical techniques and the interpretation of their results. Covering the most common statistical methods for examining and exploring relationships in data, the text includes extensive examples from a variety of scientific disciplines. The chapters are organised logically, from planning an experiment, through examining and displaying the data, to constructing quantitative models. Each chapter is intended to stand alone so that casual users can refer to the section that is most appropriate to their problem. Written by a highly qualified and internationally respected author this text: Presents statistics for the non-statistician Explains a variety of methods to extract information from data Describes the application of statistical methods to the design of “performance chemicals” Emphasises the application of statistical techniques and the interpretation of their results Of practical use to chemists, biochemists, pharmacists, biologists and researchers from many other scientific disciplines in both industry and academia.