Paul Zamecnik, who co-discovered transfer RNA, died from cancer in late October at the age of 96, according to the New York Times. A molecular biologist, Zamecnik "devised a system for modeling protein synthesis in a test tube, so he could more easily track the steps involved in translating the genetic information encoded in DNA into a chain of amino acids," the article says. Along with Mahlon Hoagland and Mary Stephenson, he discovered the molecule they named transfer RNA in 1956.