[polyfractal]

FWIW, CRISPR isn't a great analogy. It's a well understood mechanism, and not really all that different from standard genome editing techniques like restriction enzymes, zinc-finger nucleases, etc. It's new and flashy and super powerful -- and the applications of CRISPR are still being discovered -- but the mechanism is understood and simple.

[scott_s]

That wasn't the aspect I was going for. More for a period of incremental improvements in understanding, from which emerges a particular thing with enormous potential, and then the field is dominated by applications of that new thing.