1.   But a new variant of CJD now is killing young Britons who acquired the disease from eating cattle infected with abnormal prions of their own.

2.   But, Dormont reported, about half the mice did not have abnormal prion proteins in the parts of their brains examined by the researchers.

3.   Does a normal prion bind to an abnormal prion and then change its shape?

4.   If the lines could not be separated, the ministry said equipment should be cleared with crop residue, such as soybeans, which would absorb leftover abnormal prions.

5.   Instead, the abnormal prions accumulate into toxic clumps that somehow produce lethal holes in brain tissue.

6.   It may be, he said, that the abnormal prions were present but that he failed to detect them.

7.   No one has yet shown that a normal prion can be transformed into an abnormal prion and then cause disease.

8.   The abnormal prions can pass from one species to another, including humans.

9.   The abnormal prion is a version of the normal protein that has run amok.

10.   The tests turned up positive, they say, for some abnormal prions, the infectious proteins believed to cause mad cow disease.