Most of the world's experts on prions met for a workshop in Erice in August 1996. The aim of the workshop was to discuss the fundamentals of the science ofprions. It was for tunate that so many could be present given the pressure that they were under because of the data presented in March 1996, indicating that Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, BSE or Mad Cow Disease, had penetrated the species barrier and was beginning to cause a new dis ease in humans--the new variant ofCreutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, nvCJD. This important and urgent subject became an additional major topic at the workshop. This...