When I heard that 23andMe had filed for bankruptcy, I wasn't alarmed, at first. I'd taken a test from the company, years after I did one for AncestryDNA at a genetics meeting – I hadn't even remembered taking that first test.

I knew 23andMe would someday be in trouble, despite the yearly blitz of ads at holiday time, because of the ephemeral value of their DNA tests – there wasn't a viable way to keep customers on the hook.

Privacy hadn't bothered me. If someone wanted to know my SNP (genetic marker) profile, or the fact that I have more Neanderthal DNA than most people, so be it. The company wasn't sequencing genomes, just identifying a few hundred thousand places in the genome where people vary in the DNA base – A, C, T, or G – a little like a map of state capitols rather than of all streets.

To continue reading, go to DNA Science, where this post first appeared.