The price of gene sequencing is falling fast and Helicos BioSciences is poised to push it down even further — perhaps below the $1,000 mark.

This video offers a beautiful look at their technology.

Other companies are working toward cheaper sequences as well. Early this month, Applied Biosystems announced that its SOLiD 3 system will be able to sequence a whole human genome for $10,000.

Within a week, startup company Complete Genomics declared that it could accomplish the same task for half of that price.