A dark day for England's sporting teams yesterday as Australia thrashed us at cricket and South Africa completely annihilated our rugby world cup team. It's presumably related that I woke up with the sad I think it's gonna rain today on my mind. A great song but lousy performances by the English sportsmen - and a brilliant performance by South Africa, they might just challenge New Zealand for the championship.

On a more serious note, I was delighted to see this hugely important supplement to Nature on Neglected Diseases.

I think the editor's opening paragraph sums up the issue:

"We have never had such a sophisticated arsenal of technologies for treating disease, yet the gaps in health outcomes keep getting wider. This is unacceptable." This plea to close the gap between rich and poor nations was made last month by Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), in her first major address on primary health care. Few would disagree. The tragedy is that it joins a litany of similar unheeded appeals by WHO directors-general, stretching back almost 30 years."

This supplement is open-access on the web, free to all subscribers and distributed very widely beyond, thanks to its sponsors. Everyone at Macmillan - and particularly the two thirds of our people who work in developing countries - should be proud that Nature is engaging so actively in this area.