Would you like to read and discuss books about science and the law with a group of attorneys, legal professionals, and scientists? We have decided to create a Forensic Book Club that will meet every couple of months to discuss a book of interest. This book by science writer Tom Chivers has struck my fancy and will be our first book: Everything is Predictable: How Bayesian Statistics Explain Our World.
Bayes’s theorem describes the probability of an event, based on prior knowledge of conditions that might be related to the event. We’re seeing Bayesian analysis play a more important role in forensics with widespread adoption of software to interpret DNA mixtures. It’s a challenging statistical concept for attorneys to understand, so I’m eager to take a deeper dive with this book to really understand how it impacts our understanding of DNA evidence and other areas of forensic evidence.
Because it’s more fun to try to make sense of something complex with friends and colleagues, we’ll discuss this book in two parts. We’ll have our first virtual meeting on Sept. 30 at 7 pm. The book is five chapters, so please have read the intro and the first two chapters. If you’re interested in joining the book club, please complete this form, and I’ll send you the meeting link.
The book club is a friendly, casual place for any attorney, legal professional, or expert to learn and share their perspective. No prior experience with this topic is needed. We’ll be learning about it together. No continuing education credit is being offered. Even if you can’t attend the first session, if you complete the form you’ll get information about upcoming meetings.
We look forward to reading with you!