But a large offshore financial centre will typically have 80-120 corporate smithies, the World Bank reckons.

ECONOMIST: Company formation

Smithies is expected to be out for up two months after undergoing a knee operation earlier this week.

BBC: Huddersfield Town sign Nick Colgan on short-term deal

"There is only me and Alex Smithies here now so I have to stay, " Eastwood told BBC Radio Leeds.

BBC: Simon Eastwood hopes for more Huddersfield Town chances

Dr Capecchi shares this with Oliver Smithies, another immigrant to America (he was born in Britain) and Sir Martin Evans, a Briton who stayed at home.

ECONOMIST: The 2007 Nobel science prizes

The first practical application of embryonic stem cells was to provide a way for the gene-targeting trick invented by Dr Capecchi and Dr Smithies to be used to produce adult mice lacking particular genes or knockout mice, as they are now called.

ECONOMIST: The 2007 Nobel science prizes