As Italy went into lockdown at the end of February, the scientist-turned-novelist Paolo Giordano sat down and wrote an impassioned treatise on the mathematics behind contagion and the role of human behaviour in the spread of the new coronavirus. Paolo Giordano is best known for the best-selling novel "The Solitude of Prime Numbers"; he tells us about writing against the clock and his hopes for a new engagement with science. He also gives us a couple of tips on what to read while in confinement.
