First mathematical challenge: Sequencing large genomes
For example, the publicly financed Human Genome Project
used an approach called genome mapping to facilitate
sequence assembly. Most of the time the HGP took was in
fact spent on onstructing the scaffold of this map.
In contrast, Celera Genomics allegedly used an approach
called shotgun sequencing that works by randomly cutting
up the genome into small streches, sequencing them, and
then using a clever algorithm to assemble the whole
genome. There was much debate over the feasibility of
the latter approach, but it apparently worked.