Arthur Kornberg was born in 1918 in Brooklyn. In 1941 he received his medical degree from Rochester University and later became the head of the microbiology department at Washington University Medical School. From 1959 he was director of the Biochemistry Department at Stanford Medical School.

Arthur Kornberg was awarded the 1959 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine, together with Severo Ochoa, for discovery of the biochemical mechanism that is responsible for the replication and synthesis of nucleic acids.

Kornberg succeeded in creating synthetic DNA molecules for research purposes with the chemical and physical characteristics of natural DNA. However, many years passed before he and his team produced synthetic DNA molecules that were biologically active as well.

He claimed that by studying the action of DNA in bacteria we can understand the complex mechanism and the important activity of human DNA. These studies can contribute to the understanding of human development, cancer and genetic diseases.

Kornberg was once quoted as saying: “I never believed that during my lifetime I would see Genetics, Immunology and Medicine working together and using one chemical language in their attempt to gain a better understanding of life.”

Emilio Segre was born in Tivoli, Italy, in 1905. He began his engineering studies in Rome and later moved over to physics, which he studied under Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi .He was awarded his doctorate in 1928. He taught at Rome University and was appointed Head of the Physics Department at the University of Palermo in 1936.

In 1938, in the wake of the anti-Semitic regulations in the civil service enacted by the fascist government, Segre emigrated to the United States, where he joined the University of California at Berkeley.

He became an American citizen and participated in the American effort to build the atomic bomb. After his retirement in 1978, he returned to Rome University where he died in 1989.

In 1959, Emilio Segre was awarded the Nobel prize for physics, together with Owen Chamberlain, “for their discovery of the antiproton.”

The proton is a positively charged particle that is found in varying numbers in atomic nuclei. The antiproton is a similar particle, but is negatively charged. The disparity between their charges turns every encounter into a dramatic event in which they nullify one another .