Imagine receiving 100 wine bottles, one of which is poisoned. With only 7 tests available, how can you identify the toxic bottle? By cleverly converting the bottles into binary code, each combination aligns with a specific test result, revealing the poisoned bottle. This strategy, known as pooled testing, is not just for wine bottles—it can also be used to test for infectious diseases in humans and mosquitoes. While real-life data may be more complex, statistical tools can help researchers make sense of the results. By reshaping information, we can better understand emerging threats like dengue, making that sunset glass of wine a safer choice in the future.
https://kucharski.substack.com/p/the-shape-of-information