Guest Articles

We love to publish contributed articles, and this is the page which lists all those contributions. If you would like to contribute yourself, do get in touch and tell us what you'd like to publish.

Three-fold variation in UK bowel cancer death rates (?)

I've taken the headline from this BBC story. The three-fold variation is between Rossendale, in Lancashire, where there were 9 deaths per 100,000 people, and Glasgow City, where there were 31 deaths per 100,000. It's based on this press release from the charity Beating Bowel Cancer,

Another Look at Entropy

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Entropy is a term that draws both fear and reverence from the greatest physicists and mathematicians. How do you describe it? What does it even mean? Who in their right mind would want to quantify a phantom concept that's impossible to see or touch?

Quantifying the Risk of Natural Catastrophes

Shane LatchmanHow do companies prepare for the financial impact of natural catastrophes? How can they possibly have an idea of what the potential cost can be for events that haven't yet happened? Shane Latchman explains the way companies in the insurance industry are using catastrophe models to help make sense of a very uncertain future...

Skill or Chance in the Indian Premier League

by Pelham Barton

CricketDo the results in the 2009 Indian Premier League Table (20-over cricket) show more variation between the teams than one would expect if the results of single matches were completely random?

Convicted on Statistics?

by Vincent Scheureri

Vincent Scheurer"… we do not convict people in these courts on statistics.
It would be a terrible day if that were so."
Mr Justice Harrison, R v. Sally Clark. November 1999ii