23andme and the entire human race

I think the last week launch of 23andme was one one of the milestone events in the history of us Humans and Genetics after the much talked about “Dolly the Sheep”. I can lay my bets on how crucial this will turn out and what events it will result in. Nobody can really predict on what will be the fate of 23andme as a business, but surely it has taken the Genetics Technology and its availability to the masses to the next stage. For those who are new to this, 23andme is a firm started by Anne Wojcicki wife of Google’s Co-founder Sergey Brin. Thanks to this, Gnome was already starting to lose its original dictionary meaning to its Linux identity. It provides a complete DNA/ Gnome Analysis service, where you are required to Spit in their Kit (Literally) and send them for the analysis. You would be able to discover your Genetic composition, your Genetic History, Ancestral traits, etc. Sounds interesting isnt it? but then so is the cost, $999 a pop. I am sure there would be celebrity enthusiasts to queue up and it is quite easy to guess that it is not being targeted at the middle and lower spectrum of the masses.

Apart from the slightly entertaining information (much like the astrological horoscope) , this service doesnt do much at the moment. However the simple service can go well beyond this and applied on much serious areas, Security, surveillance, Crime detection, etc being some of them. While these techniques have already been used in developed countries for Security, Anti-terrorism, etc, With this publicly available service, it is now possible to get the DNA level information of any individual you know. As you might say, DNA information is now just a “Spit Away” .

Also, who knows, After Fingerprint recognition  and Iris Detection, we would now have Spit activated Access control systems.

The Video interview of its Founders can be found here on wired