When Your Genome Costs Less Than Your iPhone: The Beautiful, Terrifying Future of DNA Sequencing

Dan Lane has always had a keen interest in the next big thing. He owned an early set of Google Glass, got his first RFID implant 10 years ago. Working in technology, he'd always been curious to try out the latest piece of kit or new service. So when 23andMe, a company that offers customers insight into their own DNA, opened up in the UK, he decided he'd give that a try too.

23andMe works like this: you get sent a small tube in the post, you spit into it, and send it away to be analysed. That little sample of saliva may not seem like much, but it holds a few of your cheek cells, each of which contains your entire genome—all the DNA that makes you, you. A few weeks later after the tube arrives, 23andMe sends you back a personalised interpretation of your DNA.

Services like 23andMe can unpick your genome to discover information on a range of traits: how you react to certain drugs; your risk of developing particular diseases; what characteristics you might...