Palaeogeneticists at the University of Copenhagen and Michael Bunce at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia determined the half-life after studying a set of 158 DNA-containing bones from anextinctspecies of bird called "moa" (a feat in and of itself).
Stewart Brand, the 78-year-old technologist who came to fame as editor of "The Whole Earth Catalog, " introduced an ambitious plan to recreate extinctspecies, using DNA from museum specimens.