Novel approach distinguishes cause-and-effect from misleading correlation
Friday, September 28, 2012 - 10:04
in Biology & Nature
(Phys.org)—Is fishing alone responsible for stock collapses, or are there other dominant factors? Determining the causes driving changes in complex networks such as ecosystems is especially challenging. Until recently, scientists had a limited toolbox for detecting causation. Often they would correlate two variables and suggest it implied causation. Yet as long ago as 1710, Irish philosopher Bishop Berkeley remarked "correlation does not imply causation."