True Scientific inquiry is unpredictably random, and while someone will often eagerly publish a paper on a subject to boost perceived relevance... many rarely credit upstream sources outside academic contexts. Patents are also nice, as you often get to sue people who forgot to cite your work properly.

It is astonishingly impressive anything relevant, generalizable, and repeatable actually makes it back into the public domain. Like watching your dog eat 1kg of cheese... impressive for all the wrong reasons... lol =)