JANUARY 2010
IN THIS ISSUE:

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QUICKCALCS
Free online calculators for radioactivity calculations, detecting outliers, t tests, ANOVA post tests, and more.

CONTACT US

GraphPad Software
2236 Avenida de la Playa
La Jolla, CA 92037
USA

www.graphpad.com

Prism 5.03 and 5.0c
A free update to Prism 5.03 (Windows) and 5.0c (Mac) is now available for anyone who owns Prism 5. The update takes only a few minutes to download and install. It fixes about 200 issues, including problems with bar fill patterns on Macs running Snow Leopard. It also allows Prism to be used on netbooks with resolution of 576 vertical pixels. You can read more about the update here.

Don't use Prism 5? Try our free Prism 5 demo for a month without uninstalling prior versions. Files made with the Prism 5 demo can be opened by Prism 4.

Case Study in Data Analysis: Does a drug prevent cardiomegaly in heart failure?
This is the first in a series of case studies we're creating to help scientists learn the fine points of data analysis. This study tested the effectiveness of a drug in an animal model of heart failure. Half the rats in the study were given surgery to create heart failure, and half were given sham surgery. In each of those groups, half of the rats were injected with an experimental drug and half were injected with vehicle as a control. Did the drug work to reduce the increase in heart weight? Think about how you would analyze the data before reading the case-study. Better, download the raw data here and do your own analyses. Then read the 15 page case-study.

More articles by Dr. Motulsky:

Intuitive Biostatistics, Second Edition – after 15 years!
Fans of GraphPad Software's founder Harvey Motulsky's popular book Intuitive Biostatistics will be pleased to find out that a completely revised second edition is in print. The first edition was published about the time the first version of GraphPad Prism was released. Harvey's been thinking about writing a second edition (even if not actively working on it) ever since.

You can read more about Intuitive Biostatistics here.

New and expanded topics include:

• How our intuitions can lead us astray in issues of probability and statistics.
• Why lognormal distributions are common.
• Testing for equivalence vs. testing for differences.
• The pervasive problem of multiple comparisons.
• Testing for normality and for outliers.
• How to think about statistical hypothesis testing as comparing the
  fits of alternative models.
• The usefulness—and traps—of multiple, logistic, and proportional
  hazards regression.

Intuitive Biostatistics, Second Edition, by Harvey J. Motulsky, Oxford University Press. Available at Amazon and other bookstores.

Buy it at Amazon.

Click on the graphs below to learn how to combine columns with points on the same graph, and how to create a quality-control Levy Jenning's graph with control lines (also how to "hook" a constant for use in a Prism graph).

Cloning
Most Prism power-users have learned how to duplicate formatted Prism graphs using Save Family. Prism 5's new cloning tools make this even easier. You can start a new data table and graph from any one you've made before, and keep all the formatting -- colors, fonts, backgrounds, etc. Duplicate a new graph in just a few clicks. Learn more.

Prism on a netbook? Try Prism's bottom toolbar
Is the screen on your netbook too crowded? While Prism will run on netbooks with at least 576 pixels vertical resolution, small screens can present challenges. Hide the Prism Navigator sidebar and button toolbar to give you more screen space, and use Prism's bottom toolbar and menus to work on your files. Learn more.