Biostatistics combines biology and statistics to analyze and apply data in the study and practice of biology. It is used in experiments, drug testing, disease assessment, genetic research, and modeling to find cures, causes, and predictions.
Biostatistics is, in effect, two words – and two fields of study – combined. The bio part is about biology, the study of living beings. The statistical part involves the accumulation, monitoring, analysis and application of data. Biostatistics is the use of statistical procedures and analyzes in the study and practice of biology. As such, it has many scientific and real-world applications.
Biostatistics is routinely used to guide biology experiments. Data is collected and analyzed before, during, and after a biology experiment, with the intent of coming to some form of logical conclusion about what may not exactly be empirical findings. On the other hand, a biostatistics experiment can be entirely mathematical; for example, the measurement of an animal’s temperature at various times of day, and the subsequent monitoring of other variables involved in those temperature measurements, can be expressed in entirely numerical terms.
Speaking of measurements, it’s time for a few terms. A population is a set of measurements. In the example above, the degrees measurements of the animal’s temperature, taken together, make up the population. One or a few of these measurements evaluated separately from the rest of the population constitute a sample.
Measurements and other uses of biostatistics don’t always involve such trivial things. Biostatistics is commonly used in large-scale efforts, such as drug testing and environmental modeling. Especially in the case of trials for new drugs, biostatistics are heavily relied upon to track and interpret data and to make recommendations based on those interpretations.
Another key use of biostatistics is in assessing the spread of a disease. Scientists conduct tests on people who have contracted a disease – the sample – and compare their DNA, life history and social conditions with others living in the same area – the rest of the population – to understand why some people have gotten the disease and others not. In this way, biostatistics can help solve some environmental or biological mysteries. A related use of biostatistics is in genetic research. Samples, populations, experiments, research: everything is done in the name of finding cures for deadly diseases, causes of genetic malfunctions and predictions of eventualities.
Biostatistics is also used in modeling and hypothesising. Given a variety of data, scientists combine biostatistics and probability theory to determine the likelihood of diseases affecting populations, the drugs to treat them, and people’s response to those drugs. In this way, biostatistics promises to be as good at predicting the future as it is at analyzing the past.
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