In 1953, Watson and Crick discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, which lead to an understanding of how cells replicate and how characteristics are inherited. We now know that DNA is comprised of strings of 4 different chemical building blocks, called bases. The human genome - that is, a complete set of human DNA - consists of approximately 3 billion bases (which occur in pairs).

In 1990, a world-wide project to sequence the human genome was begun. One of the methods used to sequence the genome involves slicing the DNA up into small pieces, sequencing each piece, and then reassembling the pieces. But how exactly does reassembly happen? One technique involves creating a Hamiltonian path from a graph by applying the greedy algorithm. We will discuss this technique in detail and do some examples. No advanced mathematical knowledge will be needed for this talk.