Which Comes First?

Razib Khan at Discover's Gene Expression blog says there is "a chicken-and-egg problem with personal genomics." More specifically, until sequencing personal genomes becomes ubiquitous and the process transparent, he says they will be somewhat of a "letdown in terms of what it can, or can't, tell us." At the same time, he adds, "as long as there’s a letdown, it won’t become ubiquitous and transparent." So, which will come first? Time will tell, Khan says. In the meantime, though, Khan says he chose to publicize his genotype information in order "to show people that there’s nothing terrifying about it. Once the fear is gone, we can move forward and get some work done."