If you’ve spoken with me lately (say within the last six months of this post) then you know I’ve been a buzz over policy research.   For those of you unaware of this field just take what you know of clinical trials but replace drugs with social programs.  In a TED talk titled ‘Social experiments to fight poverty’ Esther Duflo presents social policy as a science, revealing that our hunches on what’s ‘right for most people’ can be tested using the same rigorous techniques employed by the agriculture and pharmaceutical giants.  For a better idea of how this field makes life more livable, check out the video below.  I promise Esther Duflo makes ANOVA look cool.