sanger sequencing

When reading scientific articles, a lot of complex things that went on in the actual study are usually summarized in deceivingly simple verbs like “analyzed”, “measured”, “isolated”, and the like.  Unless we’re talking about isolating a baby in a crib, even isolating raisins from a chocolate bar is tedious.  Roughly, it would involve biting around the perimeter of the raisin, then melting in your mouth the chocolate from that fragment.  Of course in the laboratory, more hygienic, precise and efficient ways of isolation are employed.  Another classic example of these deceiving verbs would be “sequenced”.  Specifically, when DNA is sequenced.   You probably have heard of DNA sequencing in articles pertaining to the Human Genome Project: that massive international project of “sequencing” the entire human genome.  To be able to appreciate just how complex “sequencing” is, we need to understand what the human genome is.