You seem to have a very blase understanding of scientific progress and genius. The fact that hundreds of world class scientists have been working in a field for

You seem to have a very blase understanding of scientific progress and genius. The fact that hundreds of world class scientists have been working in a field for decades does not at all mean that a genius can't come along and make groundbreaking progress. That's the very definition of genius, someone that makes a leap "off the path" that nobody before him could make.