The Observer Effect: How Watching Changes What Happens
Why the act of measuring becomes part of what you measure—in labs and in life
Quasi-Experiments: Finding Science in Imperfect Situations
When perfect experiments are impossible, creative researchers find causal truth hiding in natural variation
Natural Experiments: When Reality Runs the Test for You
How scientists turn historical accidents and arbitrary boundaries into rigorous evidence about cause and effect
Interaction Effects: When Things Work Differently Together
Why two plus two doesn't always equal four when causes combine in the real world
Sensitivity Analysis: Testing Whether Your Conclusions Are Fragile
How scientists deliberately try to break their own findings to discover which ones can be trusted
The File Drawer Problem: Science's Hidden Graveyard of Studies
The studies that found nothing may matter more than the ones that made headlines—here's why they stay hidden.
Ecological Fallacy: Why Group Patterns Don't Predict Individual Behavior
Group averages can deceive—learn why population patterns often reverse or vanish entirely when applied to individuals
The Replication Revolution: Why Scientists Do the Same Thing Twice
Science's most unglamorous practice is also its most powerful—discovering why repeating experiments transforms lucky guesses into reliable knowledge.
Why Your 'Gut Feeling' About Data Is Usually Wrong
Discover why evolution made your brain a pattern-finding machine that often finds patterns that aren't there, and learn the simple scientific tools to know the difference.
Peer Review: The Brutal Filter That Saves Us From Bad Science
Discover how anonymous expert scrutiny catches flawed research before it misleads you, and why surviving peer review earns scientific claims your trust.
The Null Hypothesis: Science's Most Powerful Pessimist
How assuming nothing works until proven otherwise protects science from wishful thinking and false discoveries
The Baseline Trap: Why 'Before and After' Comparisons Lie
Discover why improvements after interventions might be illusions, and learn the scientific thinking that reveals what really works.
Blind Spots: How Double-Blind Studies Outsmart Human Bias
Why scientists hide information from themselves to find the truth, and how this protects us from invisible wishful thinking
Error Bars: The Honest Uncertainty Scientists Won't Hide
Discover how those whisker-like lines on scientific graphs reveal the true boundaries of knowledge and protect us from false certainty
The Sample Size Secret: Why More Data Beats Better Hunches
Discover how collecting enough data transforms lucky guesses into scientific certainty and helps you make decisions based on evidence, not coincidence
The Measurement Problem: Why Defining Success Changes Everything
Discover how the metrics we choose shape the realities we create and why questioning measurements reveals hidden truths
Control Groups: The Invisible Heroes of Medical Breakthroughs
Discover how comparing treated and untreated groups reveals which medical breakthroughs actually work versus lucky coincidences
Correlation's Clever Disguises: Spotting Fake Causes Everywhere
Master the scientific tools that reveal when correlations are lying about causation in health, business, and daily decisions
The Power of Being Wrong: How Failed Experiments Drive Discovery
Discover why unexpected results and failed predictions often lead to revolutionary scientific breakthroughs and deeper understanding
Falsifiability: The Test That Separates Science From Speculation
Discover why the best scientific theories actively invite attempts to prove them wrong, and how this vulnerability becomes their greatest strength
Randomization: The Fairness Machine That Prevents Cheating
Discover how flipping coins and rolling dice became science's most powerful tools for finding truth in human experiments
Variables in the Wild: Isolating Causes in a Messy World
Learn how scientists untangle cause and effect in complex situations where multiple factors interact simultaneously