The Lady Tasting Tea by David Salsburg, W. H. Freeman, $23.95, ISBN
0716741067
NO ACADEMIC subject is more in need of a facelift than statistics. Mere
mention of the word conjures up images of clerks poring over figures of coal
production in Albania. Its reputation will always be dogged by that line,
attributed to Disraeli, about 鈥渓ies, damned lies鈥攁nd statistics鈥�.
David Salsburg, an American statistician working in the pharmaceuticals
industry, has bravely taken up the challenge of putting a human face on the
history of modern statistical science. In The Lady Tasting Tea,
Salsburg recognises what鈥檚 needed to produce a lively and engaging book, and
includes lots of anecdotes to leaven the often tortuous story he has to
tell.
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The book鈥檚 title refers to a lady at a tea party in Cambridge who claimed to
be able to tell whether milk had been added before or after the tea. The
resulting debate was settled (in favour of the lady) by one of those
present鈥攖he brilliant statistician Ronald Fisher, who is one of the main
characters in Salsburg鈥檚 account.
Statisticians often lament that scientists just crank through the techniques
of statistics without any real feel for the subject. Sadly, Salsburg does the
literary equivalent, producing a book that goes through the motions but lacks
narrative drive, clarity or coherence.
Statistics is one of the unrecognised jewels of modern science. Salsburg
gives only frustratingly opaque glimpses of these, in a book that promises much
more than it delivers.