I have to agree that Excel is a poor tool for "serious scientific and
engineering data analysis" (love the phrase.) I too have spent way too
much time beating Excel files into submission, with workarounds and
manipulations, just to be able to do anything useful with them. I'm told
that one can to some degree impose structure on Excel data entry, but I
don't know how, and no users ever seem to set up their spreadsheets that
way.
Somehow, a reasonable tool for business (I suppose, not being a
businessman), has infiltrated the scientific world as well.
That's really the motivation for my proposal to my science teacher
colleague. I want to introduce budding scientists to the idea that there
is a better tool for data analysis, even for exploratory analysis and
univariates and bivariates, which R does very handily. Why start an
analysis in Excel only to have to switch to something else for the
latter half?
And this will lead inevitably into conversations about better ways to
record, store, and share data. And it ties into concepts of
collaboration and reproducible research.
--Chris Ryan
SUNY Upstate Clinical Campus
Binghamton, NY
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