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Dr Jones, postdoc at that prestigious research institute in the Northeast, got lucky. Twelve months of setting up a complex functional screen finally yielded an interesting clone. The sequencing is done, and now he is sitting in front of his PC, eager to explore the gene’s possible biological role by using this new analysis software the institute just purchased. However, frustration sets in quickly as Dr Jones encounters a bewildering number of options. The first one on the list, a ‘BLAST search’, looks just as good as any other, so he picks it. The parameters he is offered to change next do not mean anything to him, so he simply goes with the default. The results are hard to interpret; the highest score is associated with a gene whose annotated function appears to be irrelevant for the biological problem Dr Jones is investigating. Where to go from here? Is the result biologically meaningful or just an artifact? Did he do anything …