Many years ago an art history professor told me that Michaelangelo believed "David" was always in the marble, but that it was up to him (MA) to "release" David from his marble prison. But even with his "release" the civilization du jour felt portions of it were better left removed. I'm trying to be G-rated, but I think you get my point.
In case you're not up on the theory of matter in the universe (a mighty big topic :) ) there is something called dark matter that scientists believe help account for some of the mass of the universe, but still this is not enough. Now with the help of Hubble, scientists believe they've found the rest of the "stuff" that comprises the mass of the universe, namely a web-like structure of baryonic intergalactic material (try saying that 10x fast).
What does one have to do with the other?
Well, both marble and the cosmos are around us and present in our everyday lives whether we acknowledge it or not. The concept of baryonic material was always there, it just took modern science to "discover" it. Whether it is later "lopped-off" is anyone's guess.
And what does that have to do with innovation?
Sometimes innovation is buried/hidden within things in front of you, people in your presence, or the comment of a small child. The skillful innovator is the Michaelangelo or the scientist that discovers the extraordinary in the ordinary, which reminds me of an observation my oldest daughter had when she was 3.
We were stopped at a traffic light in the Fall, when the leaves are mostly multicolored and on the ground. Luckily though, while stopped she noticed a tree across the street, maybe a Bradford Pear, maybe not. Anyway, she looks at it and shouts out "Big Bird!" Not knowing what she meant, or seeing that big familiar avian, I shifted my perspective to align with hers. And sure enough, I saw Big Bird formed from the placement of the yellow leaves on the brown tree much like Monet would have painted it with several small yellow dots. The light changed, and as we drove by, the Big Bird quickly became distorted to an unrecognizable collage of yellow leaves.
To bring this full circle, our perception of the cosmos is only because of our perspective from Earth. Should we "drive by" Bootes or Cygnus, I wonder what new and interesting shapes we'd see?
I bet a child could tell you.