This book aims to teach the reader how to design effective experiments. The overwhelming majority of life scientists design experiments. However they tend to approach design in an informal ad hoc way, improving their techniques in the light of experience. This book aims to provide the junior scientist a short-cut way to learn how to design effective experiments without going through a painful trial and error process.
For more experienced scientists, the text should also function to stimulate them to think about the way they design experiments, and perhaps lead them to design more effective experiments in future. Concepts, such as power analysis and pseudoreplication, that many experienced scientists consider to be mystifying or difficult, are explained in clear and practical terms.
The emphasis throughout is to demonstrate that good experimental design is about clear thinking and biological understanding, not mathematical or statistical complexity.