The Gee Whiz Economics of Innovation

There is a science report on the falling price of sequencing the 3 billion base pairs of human DNA:

• The Human Genome Project (HGP), a consortium of public-sector scientists, spent $437M and 13 years to complete the first sequencing of the genome, in 2003.
  
• Craig Venter, who developed a fast-track sequencing method, completed a sequencing of Venter's own genome last September, for a cost around $100M.
• The next-generation technique, led by the Rothberg Institute for Childhood Diseases Research in Connecticut, sequenced a sample given by James Watson, the Nobel laureate who co-discovered the DNA double helix. In all, Watson's genome took less than $1M and a mere two months to produce, the study says.

There is an interesting book by Ray Kurzweil called "The Singularity is Near" which discusses the acceleration of invention and technology:

A nice preview of what was in this book is available from Kurzweil's site in an article called "The Law of Accelerating Returns".