Editing Biostatistics (section)

=== Biostatistics and genetics ===

Biostatistical modeling forms an important part of numerous modern biological theories. [[Genetics]] studies, since its beginning, used statistical concepts to understand observed experimental results. Some genetics scientists even contributed with statistical advances with the development of methods and tools. [[Gregor Mendel]] started the genetics studies investigating genetics segregation patterns in families of peas and used statistics to explain the collected data. In the early 1900s, after the rediscovery of Mendel's Mendelian inheritance work, there were gaps in understanding between genetics and evolutionary Darwinism. [[Francis Galton]] tried to expand Mendel's discoveries with human data and proposed a different model with fractions of the heredity coming from each ancestral composing an infinite series. He called this the theory of "[[Francis Galton|Law of Ancestral Heredity]]". His ideas were strongly disagreed by [[William Bateson]], who followed Mendel's conclusions, that genetic inheritance were exclusively from the parents, half from each of them. This led to a vigorous debate between the biometricians, who supported Galton's ideas, as [[Raphael Weldon]], [[Arthur Dukinfield Darbishire]] and [[Karl Pearson]], and Mendelians, who supported Bateson's (and Mendel's) ideas, such as [[Charles Davenport]] and [[Wilhelm Johannsen]]. Later, biometricians could not reproduce Galton conclusions in different experiments, and Mendel's ideas prevailed. By the 1930s, models built on statistical reasoning had helped to resolve these differences and to produce the neo-Darwinian [[Modern synthesis (20th century)|modern evolutionary synthesis]].also

Solving these differences also allowed to define the concept of population genetics and brought together genetics and evolution. The three leading figures in the establishment of [[population genetics]] and this synthesis all relied on statistics and developed its use in biology.
* [[Ronald Fisher]] worked alongside statistician Betty Allan developing several basic statistical methods in support of his work studying the crop experiments at [[Rothamsted Research]], published in Fisher's books [[Statistical Methods for Research Workers]] (1925) and [[The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection]] (1930), as well as Allan's scientific papers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Centre for Transformative Innovation |first=Swinburne University of Technology |title=Allan, Frances Elizabeth (Betty) - Person - Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation |url=https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P001468b.htm |access-date=2022-10-26 |website=www.eoas.info |language=en-gb}}</ref> Fisher went on to give many contributions to genetics and statistics. Some of them include the [[ANOVA]], [[p-value]] concepts, [[Ronald Fisher|Fisher's exact test]] and [[Ronald Fisher|Fisher's equation]] for [[population dynamics]]. He is credited for the sentence "Natural selection is a mechanism for generating an exceedingly high degree of improbability".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gunter|first1=Chris |title=Quantitative Genetics|journal=Nature|date=10 December 2008|volume=456|issue=7223 |pages=719|doi=10.1038/456719a|pmid=19079046 |bibcode=2008Natur.456..719G|doi-access=free}}</ref>
* [[Sewall G. Wright]] developed [[F-statistics|''F''-statistics]] and methods of computing them and defined [[inbreeding coefficient]].
* [[J. B. S. Haldane]]'s book, ''The Causes of Evolution'', reestablished natural selection as the premier mechanism of evolution by explaining it in terms of the mathematical consequences of Mendelian genetics. He also developed the theory of [[primordial soup]].

These and other biostatisticians, [[mathematical biology|mathematical biologists]], and statistically inclined geneticists helped bring together [[evolutionary biology]] and [[genetics]] into a consistent, coherent whole that could begin to be [[Statistics|quantitative]]ly modeled.

In parallel to this overall development, the pioneering work of [[D'Arcy Thompson]] in ''On Growth and Form'' also helped to add quantitative discipline to biological study.

Despite the fundamental importance and frequent necessity of statistical reasoning, there may nonetheless have been a tendency among biologists to distrust or deprecate results which are not [[qualitative data|qualitatively]] apparent. One anecdote describes [[Thomas Hunt Morgan]] banning the [[Friden, Inc.|Friden calculator]] from his department at [[Caltech]], saying "Well, I am like a guy who is prospecting for gold along the banks of the Sacramento River in 1849. With a little intelligence, I can reach down and pick up big nuggets of gold. And as long as I can do that, I'm not going to let any people in my department waste scarce resources in [[placer mining]]."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tilsonfunds.com/MungerUCSBspeech.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.tilsonfunds.com/MungerUCSBspeech.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Academic Economics: Strengths and Faults After Considering Interdisciplinary Needs|author=Charles T. Munger|date=2003-10-03}}</ref>