41.   He called it a crucial step toward curing diabetes, heart diseases, and other maladies.

42.   He said the Missouri alliance had taken a crucial first step toward widespread public education about the dangers of gambling, especially among young people.

43.   Hiring a finance director is a crucial step in preparing for any such announcement.

44.   His work led to the development of chromosome maps of laboratory mice, a crucial step in identifying and analyzing the molecular defects often associated with cancer.

45.   In an important discovery about the nature of mysterious disease agents called prions, researchers have reproduced a crucial step in the infection process in the test tube.

46.   Indeed, a crucial formal step toward that transition was to have taken place next Saturday during a rare political convention of the Syrian Baath party.

47.   Inexplicably, efforts to feed huge vats of dextrose to microbes, the crucial step in lysine production, had shown poor results for months.

48.   It may also embolden banks to push ahead with foreclosing on property, a crucial step in helping solve the current debt crisis.

49.   Kohl and his hosts also are expected to sign a double taxation treaty, a crucial step to spur direct investment.

50.   Last year Prime Minister Tony Blair introduced a police bill for Northern Ireland that established an independent ombudsman to handle complaints, a crucial step.