Obituary: Severo Ochoa de Albornoz

Severo Ochoa de Albornoz, scientist, died 1 November, aged 88. A molecular biologist and trailblazer in Spanish scientific research, he shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine in 1959 for his work with ribonucleic (RNA) acids. He discovered an enzyme (called polynucleotide phosphorylase) in bacteria that enabled the synthesis of RNA acid, an important breakthrough in the understanding of the transmission of hereditary information contained in genes. He was awarded Spain's Ramon y Cajal prize in 1982 for his life's work.