Introducing Analytic Science at Lithium

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Hello everyone. I'm Michael, the principal scientist working on analytics at Lithium. With most scientific endeavors, the principal investigator is only one member of the team, and analytics at Lithium is no exception. By the way, Lithium has the witty culture of naming our development teams after superheroes. So can you guess what the analytics team is called? Hint... there is a recent movie about this group. You guessed it: the X-Men!

We chose this name because the variable X is commonly used to represent an unknown quantity. Also, X has a visual resemblance to the Greek letter chi (χ), which is what I used as the symbol for the Community Health Index (CHI).

After being a guest blogger on ScottD's blog for the past few months, we decided that I should have a blog of my own. For the sake of bookkeeping, I've gathered here previous blog articles that I've written on the development of CHI.

1.       From the Brain to Community Analytics

2.       Criteria for Creating the Community Health Index

3.       Crunching Numbers for the Community Health Index

4.       Interpreting the Statistics for CHI

5.       Formulate, Predict, and Reformulate

I will use this blog to share my passion and love for science and analytics. I will explain, and try hard to explicate in laymen terms whenever possible, some of the fascinating research that is conducted here at Lithium. This blog will also be home to tidbits of interesting scientific findings that never made it out the door as products or white papers. Finally, I will share some of my personal experiences as a scientist in the industry. This will cover everything from the people I meet while attending conferences, to interesting conversations I have with fellow practitioners, to topics I’m thinking about.

I will end this first blog post with a quote by Sir. Humphry Davy, recorded when he was defending the so-called "useless experiments" conducted by his student, Michael Faraday. This quote was also recited by Brian Cox at the end of his short TED Talk this week.

"Nothing is so dangerous to the progress of the human mind than to assume that our views of science are ultimate. That there are no mysteries in nature, that our triumphs are complete, and that there are no new worlds to conquer."

Likewise, nothing in this blog is absolute. If you disagree with me, let's discuss and talk about it. That is how science makes progress.