The word ‘statistics’ has filled many a biologist with fear and dread, so much so that some students never really get to grips with what statistical tests are trying to achieve. And as far as those baffling p values are concerned, answers to questions involving probability are often fraught with misinterpretation and confusion, or simply not attempted. The good news is that you do not have to memorise the complicated formulae used to carry out a statistical test in your biology exam. However, you may well be asked to interpret data that have been subjected to statistical analysis, which usually involves selecting an appropriate statistical test and interpreting p values.
In a nutshell, statistical analysis determines whether the difference between the results predicted from the null hypothesis and those obtained is significant. But what does this mean? Basically, it asks if the difference between expected and obtained results can be attributed to a real effect, in which case it is significant, or is it simply down to chance, in which case the difference is not significant.
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