[epistasis]

Yes, the real discovery is the detection technology.

So much of molecular biology and computational biology is tool building, so that one can see things that were not visible before. As Feynman said nearly 60 years ago:

>We have friends in other fields – in biology, for instance. We physicists often look at them and say, "You know the reason you fellows are making so little progress?" (Actually I don't know any field where they are making more rapid progress than they are in biology today.) "You should use more mathematics, like we do." They could answer us – but they're polite, so I'll answer for them: "What you should do in order for us to make more rapid progress is to make the electron microscope 100 times better."

http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html

Single-cell sequencing, ATAC-seq, HI-C, ChIP-seq, and all the other new technologies or old technologies like the antibody in this paper, these are all attempts at getting towards that 100x better electron microscope.

[phobius]

really insightful response, thanks!

(aside: wow, Feynman really is the gift that keeps on giving...)