‘Not another book attempting to explain statistics in a simple-minded way!’ could well be the reaction of an ecologist coming in from a hard day's work in the field and finding this book. It is a reasonable comment. There already exist numerous books on introductory statistics. There are, however, few books that focus on the nature of biological experiments from the perspective of biological hypotheses and the practical problems that biologists routinely encounter.

For many years, classes I have taught in ecology have struggled with mathematical and statistical concepts.

Many professional biologists also have problems with issues of logic, mathematics, statistics and formal structures. We do, however, collect data, test hypotheses and do experiments for a biologically driven mixture of reasons of curiosity (when we are young), compulsion (when we are trying to get a job), duty (when we've got one) and habit (when we're older!). Whatever the motive, all of this activity ought to result in clear and coherent advances in our understanding of nature. The challenge is to ensure that we are not lost in an overwhelming amount of indigestible quantitative information. For years, many of us have been trying to understand a logically rational framework for ensuring that the biology stays as the primary focus of the design of sampling programmes and experiments and of the collection, analysis and interpretation of data.