Quote: Angier on Inference

A quote to help in discussing over-interpretation of the results of an analysis (e.g. improper extrapolation, unwarranted conclusions that don't match the design of the study, neglecting the true variability in the data, etc.). The quote is by American nonfiction author and science reporter for the New York Times Natalie Angier (1958 - ). The quote is from her book: The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science (2007). The quote may also be found at www.quotationsbywomen.com. In context, the quote reads: "The power of science lies in its willingness to attack a big problem by dividing it into many small pieces, its embrace of the unfairly maligned practice known as reductionism. At the same time, the piecemeal approach demands that scientists be circumspect to an often tedious degree and that they resist – no matter how much they are pushed by their university’s public relations department or by desperate journalists – making more of the data than the data make of themselves."