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We now have a large and growing number of sequenced genomes. It is widely understood that this presents research opportunities and promises to change the way biology advances, but the magnitude and nature of the opportunities is, for the most part, poorly understood. In this short piece, I wish to examine the following two questions: First, how quickly will sequence data be produced? Second, what impact will this have on our understanding of the sequenced organisms?
Since I am a computer scientist by training, I tend to think of the current situation in which the field of genomics is being driven forward by rapid technological advances as quite analogous to the sequence of events in computing that were triggered by advances in microcomputer and network technologies.
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