Everyone is talking about Steven Pinker’s article in the NY Times on his experiences toying with results from personal genomics companies Counsyl and 23andme. The article is, like most of Pinker’s writing, entertaining and scientifically legit; well worth a read.
One interesting point to notice is that the different companies involved in this nascent field (I find Razib’s analogy to the early computer industry apt) are taking very different angles; there’s been something of an adaptive radiation into these new niches (ie. 23andme going for the social networking approach, Counsyl a more medical one, etc.) My impression is this is likely to be overall a good thing for people who, of course, will have varied ideas of the type of data that piques their interest.
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