Taking DNA sequencing into the field

DEVICES for analysing DNA used to be big, clunky and not very good. Hundreds were required for the initial sequencing of the human genome, a project that started in the late 1990s and took over a decade to complete at a cost of at least $500m. Since then, sequencing a human genome has become a routine process; prices have fallen to below $1,000. Although the machines that do the job have got better and more compact, they still cost several hundred thousand dollars. Various groups are trying to m...