The Theory That Would Not Die : How Bayes ' Rule Cracked the Enigma Code , Hunted Down Russian

"The Theory That Would Not Die" makes for an interesting and captivating read especially considering that writing about history of mathematics and statistics for general audience is a daunting task when compared with relatively popular topics like astronomy or physics. In this easy reading for popular-science audience, author covers over three hundred years of the history behind Bayes rule with its applications and engrossing stories of mathematical luminaries; some of which thought it was a brilliant way to model real-life scenarios while others considered it unscientific, an exercise in futility and vehemently fought against the idea of incorporating prior beliefs. Aside from providing thorough research on the subject matter, this text also delves into significant details about life and works of important scientists, mathematicians and statisticians including but not limited to Turing, Von Neumann, Price, Shannon, Bailey, Laplace, Fisher and Feynman. Regarding modern times, I was delighted to see Daphne Koller and Heckerman's work mentioned as well as the role Bayesian techniques played in contemporary discipline of Machine learning. Book Review