Growing up -- The beginning of an odyssey -- A plethora of theories -- The scrapie race -- Dr. America and the trembling cannibals -- The battle for tenure -- What's in a name? -- Lost in the Pacific fog -- The amyloid story -- Finding the gene -- Jousting with the press -- Deciphering human prion diseases -- What's in a shape? -- Turf battles -- Mad cow and other prion strains -- Stockholm -- The third judgment of Paris -- Epilogue : the quest for therapeutics.