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As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

Screening for breast cancer

Submitted by mlc40 on Tue, 17/06/2008 - 4:59pm

Since 1988, women over 50 in the UK have routinely been offered screening for breast cancer, even if they have no other symptoms, and in 2004/05 1.7 million women were screened. Those with a positive mammogram are recalled for further investigations, at considerable cost in anxiety, resources and pain and discomfort. But how many of these women really have breast cancer?