Technology Advances, Costs Fall

Here is a bit from a post on the Progress Daily blog:

Eric Lander, calculates that the cost of DNA sequencing has fallen to a hundred-thousandth of what it was a decade ago. The genome sequenced by the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium took 13 years and cost $3 billion. Now, using sequencers from Illumina, a human genome can be read in eight days at a cost of about $10,000. Pacific Biosciences has a technology that can read genomes from single DNA molecules, and thinks that in three years’ time this will be able to map a human genome in 15 minutes for less than $1,000.

The falling cost of computers created a huge new industry and affected all parts of society. The new genetics will do the same. How? I don't know. But I'm guessing one area will be energy. Most big oil companies are busy with research to produce fuel from algae, see here and here.