This "nuts and bolts" book provides a condensation of biostatistical
methods that applied microbiology researchers need to perform data
analyses. Based on the author's more than two decades of applied
research and teaching experience, it is presented in a straight-forward
manner, applicable by practicing microbiologists with minimal
backgrounds in mathematics. All methods rely only on the use of a basic
hand-held calculator. The overriding goal of this book is to ground
one's microbiological expertise and experience in one's research
pursuits, using biostatistics not as a black box, but as a tool. The
book begins with a broad discussion of the experimental process, leading
to one-sample, two-sample, and multi-sample comparisons. Each regression
analysis is presented, as well as an example. Nonparametric methods are
discussed, as well as when they should be applied. Finally, special
topics of statistics in microbiology are presented.