Kornberg, Arthur (1918-2007), an American biochemist, shared the 1959 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. He and Severo Ochoa won it for discovering a way to produce nucleic acids artificially. These chemicals play a key role in the mechanisms of heredity and protein production. In 1967, Kornberg made a nucleic acid that could reproduce itself. Kornberg was born on March 3, 1918, in New York City and taught at Stanford University. He died on Oct. 26, 2007.
