ABSTRACT

Lord Kelvin* famously said, “Until you can measure something and express it in numbers, you have only the beginning of understanding.” With few exceptions, interpreting immunological assays are all about interpreting numbers, and this can be aided (or not) by the application of statistical methods. This chapter is intended to help students of immunology, who have already had some exposure to statistics, navigate the most common statistical methods that are applied to tests of immunity. To quote the humorist Evan Esar, a statistician is one “who believes fi gures don’t lie, but admits than under analysis some of them won’t stand up either.” By understanding a few basic statistical methods and avoiding the most common pitfalls of data analysis, the student of immunology increases the odds that his or her fi gures will, in fact, stand up.