There are two black boxes. One is Pandora's, stuff of myth and legend, and remembered for releasing into the world all its cares and troubles, leaving only hope behind in the bottom of the box. The other, more recent and less mythical, is the in-flight recorder, used to monitor the events in an aircraft's flight, for later analysis in case of difficulty. Both these boxes have their analogy when we consider the role and current state of rehabilitation research in physiotherapy.