By Aaron J. Sender

Michael Giddings likes to think of himself as an explorer. When he was five years old, his father, renowned chemist J. Calvin Giddings, bought him a kayak for Christmas. He made his first river run at age six, and 29 years later he still relishes expeditions through remote waterways. These days, however, the University of North Carolina researcher focuses his attention on exploring another of nature’s mysteries: the genome.