Predictions Are Cheap in Biology

I just came back from ICSB 2013, the leading international conference on systems biology (short write-up here). During the conference Bernhard Palsson gave a great talk, which he ended by promoting a view that (I suspect) is widely held among computational and theoretical biologists but rarely vocalized: most high-impact journals require that novel predictions are experimentally validated before they are deemed worthy for publication, by which point they cease to be novel predictions. Why not allow scientists to publish predictions by themselves?

ICSB 2013

I recently had the pleasure of attending the 14^th International Conference on Systems Biology in Copenhagen. It was a five-day, multi-track bonanza, a strong sign of the field’s continued vibrancy. The keynotes were generally excellent, and while I cannot help but feel a little dismayed by the incrementalism that is inherent to scientific research and that is on display in conferences, the forest view was encouraging and hopeful. This is one of the most exciting fields of science today.