ABSTRACT
All seems quite preposterous now, when embarking on a Doctor of Philosophies in biological sciences without reconciling students to using a PC. This is practically where they are now with R, and a wealth of other alternative and emerging programming platforms. If students are not already aware of the prominence that R now has in conducting statistical analyses in biological sciences, then they have missed out on a great deal. The real point is not that they can use R, but that R represents a platform on which analyses can be easily repeated, and by saving and making the code available together with their data, they are making their data analyses reproducible. Learning R will be a steep learning curve, but it will be made easier by the large amount of excellent video tutorials and online courses that are available. The act of learning opens new pathways in the brain, and using this ‘muscle’ will facilitate future learning exercises.
