frogs, toads, salamanders and newts were disappearing in their thousands around the world. Not a single talk at the 1989 congress at the University of Kent had discussed the strange disappearance of the world’s amphibians. But scientist after scientist had the same story: from Central America to Australia, they were vanishing. The year before, I had joined the Zoological Society of London as a veterinary pathologist. It was the first time a ranavirus