Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42758128›Full record

ArticleeLife2026

The power of theory in the life sciences.

Jacob L Fine, Finn Creeggan, Joshua Gertsvolf, Purav Gupta, Adam M R Groh

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in eLife, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Jacob L Fine *Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1611-5398
Finn Creeggan *Arc Institute, Palo Alto, United States.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1573-8864
Joshua Gertsvolf *Arc Institute, Palo Alto, United States.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0451-3276
Purav Gupta *Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8855-9215
Adam M R Groh *Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5878-0973

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The rapid growth of high-throughput biology and genomics over the past two decades has helped catalogue many different aspects of gene function in diverse cell types and conditions. More recently, advances in artificial intelligence and deep learning have shown tremendous promise in making accurate predictions of functional genomics measurements. These advances make it tempting to equate experimental cataloguing and accurate prediction with the growth of our theoretical understanding of biological processes - an equivalence we believe is ultimately misleading.

Indexed as

Biological Science DisciplinesGenomicsArtificial IntelligenceHumanscell biologycomputational biologyexplanatory unificationhistory of biologymachine learningnonephilosophy of sciencescientific practicesingle-cell genomicssystems biologytheory

Identifiers

PMID42758128
PMCPMC13588617

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.