The “$1,000 genome” has become shorthand for the promise of DNA-sequencing capability made so affordable that individuals might think the once-in-a-lifetime expenditure to have a full personal genome sequence read to a disk for doctors to reference is worthwhile. Cheap sequencing technology will also make that information more meaningful by multiplying the number of researchers able to study genomes and the number of genomes they can compare to understand variations among individuals in both sickness and health. “Human” genomics extends beyond humans, as well, to an environment full of pathogens, allergens and benefi cial microbes in our food and our bodies. Many people attend to weather maps; perhaps we might one day benefi t from daily pathogen and allergen maps. The rapidly growing fi elds of nanotechnology and industrial biotechnology, too, might accelerate their mining of biomes for new “smart” materials and microbes that can be harnessed for manufacturing or bioremediation of pollution. The barrier to these applications and many more, including those we have yet to imagine, remains cost. Two National Institutes of Health funding programs for “Revolutionary Genome Sequencing Technologies” challenge scientists to achieve