Significance: August 2021 issue

Lapses in concentration while driving can be fatal, so if a person experiences a seizure – whether behind the wheel or not – UK authorities require that person to take time off driving until the risk of another seizure falls below a set threshold. But how much time off is required? In the August 2021 issue of Significance, Laura Bonnett explains how statistics helped find an answer.

Also, what is the smallest percentage of the popular vote that a US presidential candidate can receive and still win the election? Benjamin Leinwand, Puyao Ge, Vidyadhar Kulkarni and Richard Smith consider a range of scenarios – from the realistic to the implausible – to answer this question.

Plus:

• John Law (1671–1729) was a duellist, banker and gambler – founder of France's Banque Générale, and the unwitting architect of the Mississippi Bubble. Yet his place in the history of probability has long been overlooked, as Stephen Stigler explains.
• Lessons from recent attempts to subvert the US election with data analysis. By Kristian Lum, Naim Kabir and Joe Bak-Coleman.
• From the Apollo programme to the EM algorithm and beyond – an interview with Nan Laird, winner of the International Prize in Statistics.
• Part II of our “History of the Data Economy” series tells the story of the arrival of analytics and efforts to better understand consumer behaviour using new data sources. By Timandra Harkness.

Access the digital version of Significance through MyRSS, or download and read the magazine on the go with our iOS and Android apps. Print issues will be mailed to subscribers soon. Significance is online at www.significancemagazine.com.