Sharon Bertsch McGrayne

Home Works Talks and Articles CV Simple Math Examples Blog Contact

Bill Bryson's Curious Take on Bayes

April 9, 2012

Tags: Alan Turing, Bill Bryson, At Home: A Short History of Private Life, Seeing Further, Bayes, The Theory That Would Not Die, McGrayne

Bill Bryson’s interesting comments about the Rev. Thomas Bayes—comments repeated in two of his recent bestsellers and in a speech before the Royal Society of London—may leave a misleading impression.

Curiously, Bryson says that Bayes’ theorem had “no practical applications at all in his own lifetime.” In fact, Bayes’ theorem was (more…)

Be the first to comment

Selected Works

Nonfiction

The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes’ Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy.

The non-mathematical story of the fight over Bayes' rule and its ultimate triumph.

"A rollicking tale of the triumph of a powerful mathematical tool."

—Nature

"If you are not thinking like a Bayesian, perhaps you should be." John Allen Paulos, New York Times Book Review.

Editor's Choice, New York Times Book Review.

Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles and Momentous Discoveries

Biographies of 15 women scientists who won a Nobel Prize—or came very close.

“Spellbinding, compelling.”

—The Science Teacher

Prometheans in the Lab: Chemistry and the Making of the Modern World

Biographies of nine chemists whose discoveries solved serious social and technological problems.

“A compelling read… fascinating.”

—Nature