Statistical cosmology in retrospect

Over the past decade unprecedented improvements in observational technology have revolutionized astronomy. The effects of this data explosion have been felt particularly strongly in the field of cosmology. Enormous new datasets, such as those recently produced by the WMAP satellite, have at last placed our understanding of the universe on a firm empirical footing. The new surveys have also spawned sophisticated statistical approaches that can do justice to the quantity and quality of the information. In this paper I look at some of the new developments in statistical cosmology in their historical context, and show that they are just the latest example of a deep connection between the fields of astronomy and statistics that goes back at least as far as Galileo.