Calling data “the oxygen of science”, Hans Rosling, professor of international health at the Karolinska Institute, entertained and informed attendees at the 2011 Pumphandle Lecture of the John Snow Society with his energetic and humorous presentation style and unique graphs of data points moving across time. 

Source of Concern

After returning to Sweden following a stint in Mozambique early in his career as a physician, Rosling recognized that people from wealthier countries hold several myths about people and conditions in poorer countries. He reports he “got annoyed” by students and colleagues always referring to people from less fortunate countries as We and Them, i.e., We meaning those of us with a long life and small family, and Them meaning those others with a short life and large family. To help dispel these stereotypical ways of thinking about populations in the world, he analyzed statistics to show that the world has changed dramatically over the past few decades. He co-founded Gapminder Foundation to promote what he calls “a fact based world view”. 

Upgraded World View

 “We need to upgrade our world view,” according to Rosling, to be more in line with the remarkable progress made by different countries in acquiring wealth and health. According to Rosling, our prejudices can prevent us from recognizing this new “converging world” in which many countries have caught up with the United States. The unprecedented availability of data coupled with analysis and clear and clever presentation of numbers can foster a better understanding of the state of the world, says Rosling.

Main Points About Trends

Some of his main points about global trends described on his website are:

1) there are no longer two types of countries in the world—the old division into industrialized and developing countries has been replaced by 192 countries on a continuum of socio-economic development,

2) many Asian countries are now improving twice as fast as Europe ever did,

3) a new gap may form between 5 billion people moving towards healthy lives with education, cell phones, electricity, washing machines, and health services and more than 1 billion people stuck in the vicious cycle of absolute poverty and disease, and

4) there are reasons for optimism regarding the future of the world because the world is so poorly governed at present---we have enormous opportunities to improve the life of all humans by turning our already converging world into an equal, secure, sustainable, and free place to live.

“The Joy of Stats”

Rosling’s Gapminder Foundation has created a website offering multiple videos showing revealing and entertaining statistics. For example, The “Joy of Stats” video, an obvious take-off on the more well-recognized title “The Joy of Sex”, showcases the important role of statistics in making sense of the changing world and our understanding of how life is taking place on earth. Rosling unabashedly calls statistics “the sexiest subject around”, and claims that statistics gives us a perspective we cannot get in any other way. His mission is to share insights which can be gleaned from these data.

Intro To Research

In his Pumphandle Lecture, Rosling recounted the story of his conversion from doctor to researcher when faced with the need  to investigate the cause of an outbreak of paralytic disease in Mozambique. Through surveys, Rosling was able to pinpoint the affected areas of Mozambique and to discover that a drought had caused inhabitants to shortcut their usual processing of cassava prior to turning it into porridge. The toxic bitter roots of the plant contained cyanide which led to a nutritional-toxicological disease called Konzo. The disease had actually been discovered earlier in 1936 by an Italian medical doctor working in the Belgian Congo.

Epidemiology and Correlation

The Joy of Stats is of special interest to epidemiologists because of the importance it attaches to correlations as a way of making important new discoveries. British epidemiologist Michael Marmot speaks in the film to describe the scientific process and the importance of continuously trying with different approaches to disprove correlations uncovered. If the correlations withstand our best efforts to disprove them, according to Marmot, then we cautiously conclude that “we may have something here.”

Rosling credits Richard Doll with what he calls “a ground-breaking correlation”,  namely the link between smoking and lung cancer and calls the work to establish the causal relationship, “science at its best”.

According to Rosling, as our world continues to generate unimaginable amounts of data, more data lead to more correlations, and more correlations can lead to more discoveries.

To listen to the Pumphandle Lecture, visit:

http://tinyurl.com/3fd5ngk

The sound quality of the video is not optimal, however, readers will be able to see and hear Rosling’s dynamic presentation style and a sample of data.

To hear a better quality video and perhaps the most exuberant presentation about the value of statistics and correlations you have ever heard, visit the Gapminder Foundation website to view “The Joy of Stats” and other videos and lectures.

http://tinyurl.com/28gw5np