Biometry

Biometry

Biometry is the application of mathematical models to living systems. The use of statistics and mathematics as a tool for interpreting experimental data has proven invaluable to biologists, public health practitioners, researchers, and environmental scientists in areas such as genetics, toxicology, neurology, and clinical trials. Once considered a fledgling application of mathematics, biometry has proven to be a vital field playing a central role in substantive scientific and social issues of the day.

History of the Discipline

English scientist Francis Galton (1822-1911) is considered the founder of the biometric school. He strongly believed that virtually everything could be proven mathematically—that everything was quantifiable. Following this belief, Galton's first experiments (performed around 1850) included using statistical models to measure beauty and the effectiveness of prayer. Later, he came up with his own theory to explain inheritance: the theory of ancestral heredity . This theory held that each parent contributes one-half of the offspring's traits, each grandparent one-fourth, and so on.

It was not until the 1940s, though, that the application of statistics to biological questions began to have a profound impact on the scientific community. Scientific articles appeared in various journals, spurring the biometrics section of the American Statistical Association to publish the Biometrics Bulletin, in 1945. Two years later the International Biometric Society (IBS) was established. According to its constitution, the IBS is "an international society for the advancement of biological science through the development of quantitative theories, and the application, development, and dissemination of effective mathematical and statistical techniques." Shortly thereafter, the IBS began publishing Biometrics, a journal directed toward biologists who saw statistics as a powerful tool in their work. Since its inception, Biometrics has been the premiere source for biometry-related scientific articles.

The first biometry studies were primarily concerned with agriculture in its broadest definition, specifically the design of experimental techniques. The first issue of Biometrics illustrates the type of analyses being performed in 1947. Articles included: "Some Uses of Statistical Methods in Plant Breeding," "Statistical Methods in Forestry," "Some Uses of Statistics in Plant Pathology," and "Some Applications of Statistical Methods to Fishery Problems." Biologists soon began writing articles relating more to the actual tools of their trade, such as the manipulation of slide rules, early calculators, and other devices. Indicative of the difficulty of applying complex statistical equations to biological queries in the days of clunky desk calculators, these reports attempted to ease the burden caused by less than stellar technological advances. Stressing the importance of collaboration between statisticians and researchers also became widespread, as the use of biometry in biological experimentation grew more commonplace. By sharing statistical methodologies, experimental designs, and the basic "how's" and "why's" of using appropriate mathematical models, both statisticians and researchers began to carve out a truly unique field of study.

The Expanding Field of Biometry

Medical uses, in the form of clinical trials, were part of the second wave of compelling applications of biometrical principles. The 1954 trial of the poliomyelitis vaccine, in the United States, was considered one of the largest experiments ever conducted. This was also a key precursor to the array of clinical studies conducted in later decades for diseases such as AIDS, cancer, influenza, measles, and malaria. Clinical trials paved the way for biological scientists to explore biometrical doctrines in such areas as social sciences, physical sciences, and engineering.

The widening scope of possibility for biometry has always been reliant on technology. New techniques in exploratory data analysis and computer graphics allow for statistical development in the areas of organismal, cellular, and molecular biology, neuroscience, and neural networks. Attracting enormous attention in the year 2000 was the Human Genome Project . Mapping and sequencing human genes would have been severely limited without the application of mathematical and statistical principles and computational advances. Additionally, the advent of the World Wide Web and expanded communication technologies have had an incredible impact on the sharing of information as well as locating research materials.

When issues involving the environment—ecology, global change, biological diversity, oceanography, and meteorological data—became widely apparent in the 1970s, biometrical principles arising mainly out of the geosciences opened up new opportunities for biometricians. Similarly, changes in social and economic conditions, especially in developing nations, also provide a wealth of statistical problems that demand biometrical attention and expertise, much of which depends on new methodologies.

A new field of particular interest is that of "seafloor biology," the birth of which began with the launching of Deep Flight I, a kind of underwater aircraft that was sent to explore the ocean floor. This endeavor will certainly necessitate further innovative developments in statistical methodologies to process and learn from the resulting data.

Ann Guidry

Bibliography

Armitage, Peter, and Herbert A. David, eds. Advances in Biometry: Fifty Years of the International Biometric Society. New York: Wiley, 1996.

Ingelfinger, Joseph A. Biostatistics in Clinical Medicine, 2nd ed. New York: Macmillan, 1987.

McGrath, Kimberley A., ed. World of Biology. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999.