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Sorry, wrong joke.

Picture from Wikipedia: Sponges

Antiviral drugs are a hot topic.

I remember, growing up, there were no such things, just antibiotics, which are effective only against bacterial infections. But about four years ago I had (not contacted) shingles. I'd had it for half a century plus, only it was Chicken Pox (called variola) when I caught it originally; shingles when it flared up again in a different form (called herpes zoster, same virus).

The virus had been dormant in my spinal chord for half a century, but old age or stress or something else brought the monster to life once more. After about a day of wondering why my back hurt somewhat, I suddenly realised what it must be and trotted off to my excellent doc. Self diagnosis confirmed and doc prescribed acylovir. This had been around from 1980, but I didn't realise. It's on the WHO list of essential drugs which (my words) address a widespread and significant health concen; and are effective, safe and affordable.

An amazing drug. Main use against herpes viruses, read more here. But the surprising thing is that it was developed from a Carribean sea sponge.

It turns out that sea sponges, from their way of living, have evolved a huge range of chemical biodefence against bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa and so on. By exploring these agents some useful drugs have been found. Read more here.

When I was young we had proper nostalgia. Not like now.

The picture below is the network of paths at the campus of Michigan State University. It's famous because, as new buildings were added the planners let the people find their own pathways, and were guided by those, rather than imposing a preconceived layout.

Such user-chosen routes are often called 'paths of desire' and reflect what people have discovered works for them. There is a good Guardian article about paths of desire at

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/oct/05/desire-paths-the-illicit-trails-that-defy-the-urban-planners

I'm also indebted to Brian Horton, New Scientist Letters, 4 April, who made me aware of all this.

“But why do chickens do it?”, asked Tom crossly.

Here I am at day 31. Can we get anything interesting out of the number 31 though, like we did for 23? Here's a start.

1. It's prime, and if we write the primes up to and including 31 in order

I've had plenty of tough cases. One was the letter 'e'. In denial but wouldn't admit it.

Say what you like about self-isolation, but at least you know where you are with it.

One way or another we all know Luigi Boccherini's 'Celebrated Minuet'. It's one of most famous classical tunes of all time. A Google search for 'Boccherini minuet' throws up plenty of hits for it.

But; for a very long time I never even considered what else Boccherini might have written. Like Pachebel's Canon, this piece seemed a singular achievement, a one-off, a kind of outlier in an otherwise unspectacular body of work.

Guess what: that was plain wrong. I'm far from alone in underestimating Boccherini, but in the last few years the talent of this composer has become far better recognised. The excellent classic music service WKSU played some pieces of his recently, and I saw what I was missing.

At home tonight we listened to Boccherini during dinner, and it was lovely.

Q. What kind of street only lets you weigh things once?

A. A one-weigh street!