Crichton was clearly a pretty clever and observant man - although Tony supposed that was to be expected of a physicist. "Yeah, that's my closest guess," he admitted. He didn't love it, but it was somehow better than assuming that there was some nefarious intent behind it.
As for how to cure it? Tony shrugged a little. "That's what I'm going for, sure." Why wouldn't it be? "Simulated trial and error. I'm not great on the biology level of things, but given enough time..." Well. He could probably figure something out with enough time. He'd figured out time travel. This shouldn't have been harder. Even if his resources were fewer.