Barbara Stoddard Burks: Pioneer in Causality

In honor of Women’s History Month, I would like to tell the story of one of the truly unsung heroes of The Book of Why: Barbara Stoddard Burks, who was to our knowledge the first social scientist ever to use a causal diagram. The early years of the 20th century...

Prize Nomination, New Book

Whew! (Stamp, stamp.) I guess I was away for a little bit longer than I expected. Three years, has it been? Well, let me put some tea on the stove and then I’ll tell you about what has happened since my last visit. Ah, that’s better. Well then, last time I...

Photo, paperback, and other updates

My editor for the American Mathematical Society, Ed Dunne, took this photo recently when he was visiting Washington University in St. Louis. I’m delighted to see that The Universe in Zero Words is still on the shelves after a year, and keeping such good company!...

Scientific American article published

For years there has been one writing credit missing from my resume. I like to tell people that I have written for all the magazines that have “Science” in the title: Science, American Scientist, New Scientist, Science News (assuming you count their Web...