How Science Takes Stock: The Story of Meta-Analysis

by Morton Hunt

Hunt, Morton M.

222 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Date of Birth: 1920

Morton Hunt is an award winning science writer who has writen for The New Yorker,The New York Times Magazine and Harper's among many other publications. He is the author of "The Natural History of Love", and "The Universe Within". He lives in Gladwyne, PA.

Reviews

[Christopher Prosser · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of us who are surprised about research results that often contradict each other in the popular press (is butter good, bad for you now?), this book provides insight into the tools being used to resolve those questions.

This is a story about the initial development and growth of meta-analysis in a number of different fields. The author does a good job of introducing key people in the history and proving a more interesting approach in what could be a dry topic.

I came to this book as I move my decision making at work to be more evidence based. While we have a while to go before we have enough studies to use these techniques, it is good to know a path forward when our simple approaches run out of steam.