PNNL

Abstract

Finding meaningful relationships in complex datasets requires starting with the appropriate data. A hypothesis usually takes the form of a mechanistic relationship between a specific cause and a consequent effect, and this will almost always depend on experimental context. There are some circumstances when data must be gathered in the absence of context or hypothesis to characterize a system, but it is unrealistic to expect such preliminary studies to lead to significant biological insights. For this, you need a hypothesis. Systems biology might be the future of biology, but we still need hypotheses to take us where we want to go.