Personally, I feel like that 'gap' comes from most SF writers having a physics/maths backgrounds while the really 'cool' stuff is happening in biology. Hard SF generally focuses on physics, not biology.

Greg Bear had some interesting novels around retroviruses in the 90s, Darwin's Radio, and I've read some solarpunk stories that went into the right direction. Peter Watts has a PhD in Zoology which is maybe why Blindsight is so good.