Yup
SIL is a research professor - daughter is a research scientist.
They write it ALL down - plus this guy surely didn't do it on his own. Any breakthrough may have been his idea, but he prolly had lab assistants who do the grunt work, plus a colleague or two with whom he shared information.
These days, the necessary network is MUCH broader, including all the technicians who ran the instruments and made the various measurements of results. Nowadays, chemical and biological analysis is so complex that very few research physicians are capable of running their own equipment.