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Biomeasurement: A Student's Guide to Biological Statistics . Second Edition .
By Dawn Hawkins . Oxford and New York : Oxford University Press . $49.95
(paper). xxviii + 337 p.; ill...
Article in The Quarterly Review of Biology · September 2010
DOI: 10.1086/655037
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September 2010 NEW BIOLOGICAL BOOKS 345
for the material within. Bioinformatics is just that, a Biomeasurement: A Student’s Guide to Bio-
concise summarization of bioinformatics concepts logical Statistics. Second Edition.
and tools. By Dawn Hawkins. Oxford and New York: Oxford
David Lapointe, Cell Biology, University of Mas- University Press. $49.95 (paper). xxviii ⫹ 337 p.;
sachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts ill.; index. ISBN: 978-0-19-921999-5. 2009.
This is a very user-friendly introduction to statisti-
cal methods for first-year undergraduate biology
Bioinformatics: Tools and Applications. students. As the author points out, it has a relaxed
Edited by David Edwards, Jason Stajich, and David style. It is based on the philosophy that “biologists
Hansen. New York: Springer. $89.95. xii ⫹ 451 p.; don’t need to understand the mathematical prin-
ill.; index. ISBN: 978-0-387-92737-4 (hc); 978-0- ciples behind statistical equations to be good
387-92738-1 (eb). 2009. scientists. They really need faith in the mathema-
This edited volume provides a systematic overview ticians who created the statistical formulae” (p.
of the increasingly mature field of bioinformatics. viii). That may be a good strategy at the elementary
Its coverage is broad, with 19 chapters carefully level, but at some point scientists need to become
much more skeptical about exactly what methods do
organized to span the diversity of the field as tra-
and under what conditions they are valid.
ditionally understood, including standard topics
For each major method discussed, the book
such as gene prediction and emergent subjects of
presents the logical steps, a series of self-help ques-
importance such as literature mining. tions in a convenient checklist of key points
Unlike many bioinformatics books that are fo- covered in the chapter. There are also worked
cused on biomedical applications, the editors ap- examples done by hand, and by using SPSS 16.0. A
pear to have made an effort to avoid such a bias website that gives additional information and ex-
here. Most chapters focus on no particular study ample data in various file formats is also included.
organism, while others are self-consciously focused A set of standard statistical tables are provided in
on nonmammalian systems (for example, a pair of an appendix. A useful feature is a “Literature link”
chapters on phenomics in plants and microorgan- to published studies that are examples of particu-
isms). Some of the chapters provide foundational lar methods. I was surprised to see an advanced
background that cuts across specialties, such as an topic such as General Linear Model (GLM) in-
excellent primer on software engineering tech- cluded in an elementary textbook. The descrip-
niques by John Boyle. tions of most methods are quite accurate. How-
A risk inherent to freezing this content within ever, the chapter on regression does not make the
the pages of a book is the rapid evolution of the proper distinction between model I and model II
state of the art. Individual software tools have a and, unfortunately, uses a data set more appropri-
relatively short life, and computational techniques ate for model II.
used to make sense of data produced with yester- F. James Rohlf, Ecology & Evolution, Stony Brook
University, Stony Brook, New York
day’s technology often differ from those needed
for the data we will face tomorrow. Some chapters
do a better job than others at focusing on funda- R for Medicine and Biology. Jones and Bartlett
mental principles that are unlikely to go obsolete Series in Biomedical Informatics.
any time soon; a standout is the chapter on regu- By Paul D. Lewis. Sudbury (Massachusetts): Jones
latory motif analysis by Moses and Sinha. Still, and Bartlett Publishers. $69.95. xix ⫹ 399 p.; ill.;
some of the more time-sensitive reviews are well index. ISBN: 978-0-7637-5808-0. 2010.
done, including an excellent one on the predic- In the past ten years, R has become the leading
software for statistical data analysis. What is more
tion of noncoding RNA transcripts by Kavanaugh
remarkable is that R has maintained its integrity
and Ohler.
while thousands of add-on packages were being
The authors intend the volume both for biolo-
written separately. Therefore, R is now used in a
gists and computer scientists who are interested in very wide range of scientific disciplines. The
learning more about the field. Although individ- present book is a nice illustration of the use of R
ual chapters tend toward one audience or the for the analysis of biomedical data. Its goal is to
other, overall I think the book will achieve its aim show the power and wide range of possible appli-
of being a useful resource to both audiences, and cations of R in this field. Doubtless, this goal is
would be an excellent choice for an advanced fulfilled. The volume illustrates how R can be used
graduate course or reading group. as a central environment for data analysis, and how
Todd Vision, Biology, University of North Carolina, it can be interfaced with different systems such as
Chapel Hill, North Carolina SQL (structured query language, a database man-
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