[privacy] Spartan DX checks your DNA in 30 minutes flat

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

Spartan DX checks your DNA in 30 minutes flat
Related Entries:   <http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/miscellaneous/>
Miscellaneous 
POSTED Tuesday, June 12, 2007
 <http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2007/06/12/spartan_dx_chec.html>
http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2007/06/12/spartan_dx_chec.html

 

 spartan_dx.jpg
<outbind://35-000000005F8A4C2B5F77654A9A1394E9921548E5040D7C00/http://blog.s
cifi.com/tech/pics/spartan_dx.jpg> 

Always wanted to get tested for some genetic disease, but too lazy to go to
a lab? 

Now you can test your genes right in your own home with the Spartan DX
personal DNA analyzer. 

The desktop machine can test up to four samples at once, giving you results
in 30 minutes - not quite as good as those DNA-scanning kiosks in
<http://scifipedia.scifi.com/index.php/Gattaca> Gattaca, but we're getting
there.

Spartan's site notes that the DX is intended for "research only" and isn't
approved for clinical or diagnostic stuff, so you might want to hold back on
those plans to start your own CSI unit or sell paternity tests out of your
garage with this thing (the $14,995 price might give you pause, too). 

But if you happen to run a lab that needs to test individual samples of DNA
as often as multiple ones (DNA testers are typically huge, doing hundreds of
samples at a time), the DX could save you a lot of time and money in the
long run.

Taking a step back, it's truly amazing that the technology to analyze one of
the most complex molecules in existence is now available in a gadget the
size of a
<http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2007/04/04/8core_macpro_an.html>
desktop PC. 

It's an achievement that even Spartan's lame promise to give away a free
iPod nano with every purchase can't cheapen.

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