How Science Works: Evaluating Evidence in Biology and Medicine

by Stephen H. Jenkins

Overview

One week, red wine is good for the heart. The next week, new reports say it's bad for the health. So which is true? Anyone who's ever read science news with fascination, or who's ever been confounded by conflicting stories will appreciate this book. Taking a look at some true to life contemporary news stories, the author assesses recent studies on topics ranging from vitamin C and caffeine to pollution and cancer. With straight talk and a passion for the whole project of science, he demysifies the cult of the expert and sheds light on the nitty-gritty details of scientific processes. Any scientist loves a challenge, but the biggest challenge of all, observes Jenkins, is shared by scientists and nonscientitsts alike: how to make practical decisions in light of ambiguous evidence. Promising no simple answers, this book does offer excellent food for thought for people pondering that next glass of wine.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190289287
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/01/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

University of Nevada, Reno

Table of Contents

1.	Introduction	3
2.	Do Vitamin C and Other Antioxidants Benefit Health? Using Observational and Experimental Studies to Test Medical Hypotheses	14
3.	Can Police Dogs Identify Criminal Suspects by Smell? Using Experiments to Test Hypotheses about Animal Behavior	36
4.	Why Are Frogs in Trouble? Complementary Observations and Experiments to Test Hypotheses in Ecology	53
5.	How Do Animals Find Stored Food? Strong Inference by Testing Alternative Hypotheses	73
6.	What Causes Cancer? The Complexities of Causation	92
7.	Why Do We Age? Different Levels of Causation as Complementary Explanations	112
8.	How Does Coffee Affect Health? Combining Results of Multiple Studies	137
9.	How Will Climate Change Affect the Spread of Human Diseases? Models and the Perils of Prediction	159
10.	Conclusion: How Science Works and Its Role in Society	181
Appendix 1.	Using Data for Twins to Estimate Genetic and Environmental Contributions to the Risk of Cancer	191
Appendix 2.	Precision and the Power of Statistical Tests	193
	Notes	197
	References	207
	Index	219

Editorial Reviews

"This book is a straight-forward, well-written, concise piece that skillfully covers...the methodologies of science in relationship to the life sciences. I highly recommend it to anyone who teaches these courses and places an emphasis, where it belongs, on 'how science works.'" —The Quarterly Review of Biology

"Though it might seem impossible to compress such a range of topics into about 200 very readable pages, Jenkins succeeds in providing a survey that might be of equal interest both for the curious reader in search for a popular state of the art discussion of the nine mentioned topics and for the methodologically-minded scholar looking for an introduction to the beauty and perplexities of biomedical research." —Metapsychology

From the Publisher