Current Issue March 2014 magazine cover  Save 81% off the
newsstand price!   Personal Genome Project  These holidays, give
the people who have everything the one thing they don't: a map
of their own DNA  The holidays bring out the wishful thinker in
all of us. Some of us pine for that car that folds up into a
suitcase. Others hope for something more eco-friendly, like a
matter transporter. A few unreasonable souls wish for things
like happiness or health.  None of these gifts, at present, is
available at Wal-Mart, or even eBay. But what if you could give
the gift of, say, health—in the form of a personal genetic
analysis? When can we spit on a lab slide and, a few months
later, know the various conditions our body might endure in the
coming years? When can we put down our Magic-8 Balls and truly
get a glimpse into the future?  The human body contains about
20,000 genes that together make up its DNA, or full genome. DNA
consists of three billion pairs of four chemicals—A's, T's, C's
and G's, as they're known.