Hailed as the greatest scientific achievement since man set foot on the Moon, deciphering the sequence of all 3.2 billion units of the human genome was an astonishing accomplishment. Starting in the 1980s, both government and private genomic research teams invented new laboratory tools and techniques specifically to analyze vast amounts of information. Finally in 2000, researchers announced they had pieced together our DNA code—a first draft of the human genome.

The basic skills needed to "read" the human genome are rooted in simple DNA analysis. The machines used for these tasks will undoubtedly change as computers get faster and smaller, but the five general laboratory steps remain the same: isolating, manipulating and sequencing the DNA followed by analyzing and storing the data.