"What will come out of this is a detailed, real-time sequence of what happens in a brain surgery through all the stages from preparation, to shaving the hair, to making the incision, to draping, " Dr. Kim says.

CNN: Hospital to live tweet brain surgery, put pics on Pinterest

Now, 15 years after that first sequencing breakthrough, the field is finally on the cusp of making a real impact, as the cost of sequencing human DNA has gone so low that scientists are likely to sequence hundreds or thousands of genomes over the next couple years.

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