We live in ‘interesting times’ for better or worse. Scarcely has nucleic testing outstripped culture in the diagnosis of gonorrhoea, before it is threatened not only by the expected resistance to antibiotics, but also ‘invisibility cloak’ evolution in the form of mutants lacking the porA gene see the Editor's Choice by Ison et al.1 Having watched slow-to-adapt Chlamydia trachomatis2 evade new generation testing, the future of STI diagnosis looks increasingly uncertain. While enthusiasts continue to look forward to an age in which molecular typing helps in the characterisation of outbreaks,3 this all depends on making the diagnosis in the first place. With syphilis, we may have a little longer,4 but the perfect test still eludes us. Don't throw away microscopy …