I have always been fascinated by life cycles. As a naive schoolboy, the life cycles of insects in the biology lab suggested an understanding of life itself might be possible. At university, the biochemistry pathways indicated a new level of understanding and ways of control. As a young army doctor, the tropical medicine course at The Royal Army Medical College in Millbank re-introduced me to vector-based diseases. I probably took this too seriously by going on to investigate cutaneous leishmaniasis for my MD! So this edition of Dermatology in practice, with articles on ticks and porphyria, took me down memory lane!