Discovery of slimy sea creature could help settle row over early evolution of vertebratesThe fossilised remains of a foot-long slimy sea creature dating from 100m years ago suggest that the last common ancestor of all vertebrates looked less like a squishy eel and more typically “fish-like”, researchers claim.They say the fossil, unearthed around eight years ago in Lebanon, is an early hagfish, a peculiar creature that has no jaws, eyes or true vertebrae but that boasts the ability, when threatened, to squirt out a mixture that turns into an expanse of slime. Continue reading...

Human activity has created a new era yet climate change can be stopped, says naturalistSir David Attenborough has warned that “the Garden of Eden is no more”, as he urged political and business leaders from around the world to make a renewed push to tackle climate change before the damage is irreparable.Speaking at the start of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, the 92-year-old naturalist and broadcaster warned that human activity has taken the world into a new era, threatening to undermine civilisation. Continue reading...

The biologist’s task is more than just learning facts they must attempt to understand the messy, complex web of life, writes Andy LloydI disagree with your correspondent (Letters, 19 January) who thinks biology is preoccupied with memorising facts. I have heard this tired assertion many times in staff rooms during a career as a biologist who also taught physics and chemistry. Biology does indeed have elegance, with the theory of evolution and the structure of DNA giving an overarching understanding of the subject. Yet together they have produced a messy, ad hoc, complex and confusingly tangled web of life.Lucky the chemists and physicists. Atoms with consistent structures obeying laws that seem to hold throughout the universe so that the inner workings of stars in distant galaxies are as explicable as the working of our own sun. The unfortunate biologist is stuck with attempting to unravel the twists and turns of processes within living organisms created without a designer or overall plan yet arguably the most complex entities in the universe.

Changes in levels of a protein might reveal onset of disease long before symptoms appearChanges in levels of a protein in the blood could help shed light on damage in the brain more than a decade before symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease develop, researchers have revealed.While there is no drug to stop the progression of Alzheimer’s, or cure it, the researchers said the study findings could be used by doctors to help anticipate when patients might start to show symptoms of the disease. Continue reading...

Survival rates for 13- to 24-year-olds are rising. Yet poorer patients fare less well, and vital post-cancer care is still lackingWhen I was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2013, aged 22, I was shocked to find out how little survival rates had improved among young people with cancer in recent decades. Research had left us “forgotten in the middle” between children and older adults, as one study put it, with improvements in outcomes among teens and twentysomethings lagging behind the dramatic advances seen among the general population.Related: Cancer’s long-term prognosis: as an oncologist I’ve never been so hopeful | Ranjana Srivastava Continue reading...

Archaeologists were studying site until former farm owner came forwardA stone circle thought to be thousands of years old has turned out to be a lot more modern after a former farm owner admitted building it in the 1990s.The “recumbent stone circle” in the parish of Leochel-Cushnie, Aberdeenshire, was reported by the site’s current farm and was considered unusual for its small diameter and relatively small stones. Continue reading...

Study finds stool transplants from some donors are far more effective than othersResearchers looking into the success of faecal transplants believe they have identified why the poo of certain donors produces better results than others – so called “super-donors”.A team at the University of Auckland examined results from previous studies on faecal transplants – when faeces, and the microbes it contains, are taken from a healthy gut and used to “re-set” the gut of the recipient – to understand why poo from certain donors resulted in a better success rate in treating certain conditions. Continue reading...

Stargazers across the globe have braved sub-zero temperatures to catch a glimpse of the lunar phenomenon known as a super blood wolf moon

Thousands endure sub-zero temperatures in US and Europe to see rare event

Successful Chang’e 4 mission reveals nation’s ambitious attempts to thwart its rivalsAs Apollo 11 sailed above the moon, mission control in Houston suggested the astronauts should keep an eye out for a “beautiful Chinese girl called Chang-o”, who, according to legend, had ascended to the moon thousands of years previously, taking along a large rabbit as a companion.“I’ll look out for the bunny girl then,” Buzz Aldrin joked in reply, shortly ahead of his and Neil Armstrong’s historic touchdown at the lunar surface. Continue reading...

We got out alive, and my life has been transformed. This is nothing but a great opportunity to help other peopleIt was 4am. I awoke. I had already decided I wouldn’t walk this morning. After hours spent traipsing around Northland the previous night trying to complete last-minute Christmas shopping with my eldest daughter, I needed rest. But I couldn’t settle.I got up quietly, trying not to disturb my sleeping wife, and went through to the living room. I sat at the dining table and started watching YouTube on my laptop. Normally I would wear my headphones, but this morning I simply turned the volume down low. If I hadn’t made that decision, I might not have heard the noises outside. Continue reading...

Taurus is prominent in the southern sky for northern hemisphere starwatchers, with two open clusters and the red giant AldebaranThe winter skies of January are a great time for northern hemisphere viewers to search out the constellation Taurus, the Bull. The chart shows the view looking south at 20:00 GMT on 21 January 2019. Of all the constellations that humans have named, this is the oldest. It was recognised across the world’s early cultures as a bull. Before that, in prehistoric times, it was possibly depicted on the 17,000-year-old paintings in the Lascaux caves, France. The constellation is not the brightest, but the face of the bull is well marked by a V-shaped collection of stars called the Hyades. The red giant star Aldebaran represents the eye of the bull. It is not a member of the Hyades but sits in front of it. At 65 light years away, it is roughly half way between the Sun and the Hyades. Above the shoulder of the bull is another famous star cluster: the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters. It is a tight knot of stars, and is the only obvious star cluster that can be recognised by the naked eye. In mythology, Taurus is often challenging Orion, the hunter. Continue reading...

Last blood moon for two years will combine with a supermoon to create the unusual celestial phenomenonLatest – Super blood wolf moon: lunar eclipse stargazers battle cold and cloudsAn unusual set of circumstances will combine in the early hours of Monday morning resulting in a phenomenon called a super blood wolf moon.A total lunar eclipse will give an apparent reddish colour to the lunar surface – known as a blood moon. At the same time, the moon will be slighty closer to Earth than normal and appear slightly bigger and brighter than usual – a phenomenon called a supermoon. Continue reading...

Haemin Sunim is the Buddhist monk whose hugely successful self-care advice books have made him a celebrityWhen a smart café opened in his neighbourhood in New York, where he used to live, Buddhist monk and bestselling author Haemin Sunim went along to sample the delicious-looking cake. Hearing the prices, however, he balked and ordered just tea instead – but that cake stayed in his mind all afternoon. The next day, he was still thinking about it, and the day after that until, finally, he had to go back and treat himself. The verdict? “It was delicious but not extraordinarily delicious,” he writes in his new book, Love for Imperfect Things. “This must be the kind of feeling people have after winning the Nobel prize or becoming president.”This small, wry slice of everyday life – and let-down – is one of many in Sunim’s latest self-care tome, the follow-up to his first book, the wildly successful Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down, published in 2012. Continue reading...

The Belgian biologist fears for the future of the pioneering UK Dementia Research Institute after BrexitBart De Strooper is clear about his decision to accept the post of running Britain’s massive pioneering research project on dementia. “I would have not gone for it had I known what I know now,” the 59-year-old Belgian biologist told the Observer last week.The cause of his dismay is simple: Brexit has blighted the nation and distorted its attitude to international science, said De Strooper. As a result, his UK Dementia Research Institute, set up in 2016 at a cost of £250m with the aim of turning the UK into a world leader in dementia research, now faces serious funding and recruitment problems. Continue reading...

Matthew Bishop was told there was no treatment that could save his vision. But now scientific breakthroughs in gene therapy have given him, and others, hopeIn his office in Oxford’s John Radcliffe hospital, Prof Robert MacLaren sits upright, his back as straight as a soldier’s, and tells me about the lowest point in his 20-year career. It was the rejection, many years ago, of his grant application for a project investigating how gene therapy might treat conditions causing blindness. “It was completely panned by the reviewers,” he says. “We were told ‘There’s no way it’s ever going to happen – it’s a complete waste of time funding such a ridiculously stupid project’.”In October last year, MacLaren successfully completed the world’s first gene therapy trial for one such condition, called choroideremia, as part of the largest late-stage trial ever for any genetic disease. It marks an extraordinary breakthrough in the quest of scientists and clinicians to understand why and how our own genes can make us ill, and the apparently miraculous possibility of rewriting our genetic code. But MacLaren is understated about this victory: “It’s really satisfying, when you’re given such a rebuttal, to then prove the reviewers wrong. I’d love to go back to them and say: Look what’s going on now.” Continue reading...

Whether it be a hijack, kidnap or siege situation, negotiation is an art. Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn take noteWestminster is in deadlock. The progress of Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement has stalled in parliament, where a majority of MPs are opposed to it. Jeremy Corbyn has refused to enter talks with the prime minister until she rules out a no-deal Brexit, a demand she describes as “an impossible condition”. So how do our political representatives get themselves out of this impasse?“Negotiation is an art, not a science,” says Dr J Simon Rofe, a reader in diplomatic and international studies at Soas, University of London, who teaches a course called “the art of negotiation”. Continue reading...

Specialists put 21.3-metre skeleton back together in Kelvingrove MuseumExperts have been piecing together Dippy the dinosaur before he goes on public display on the only Scottish stop of his UK tour.The Natural History Museum London’s 21.3-metre replica diplodocus skeleton arrived at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow this month after sailing across the Irish Sea. Continue reading...

Scientists surprised by haul of crustaceans and tardigrades in undisturbed subglacial lakeScientists have found the remains of tiny, ancient animals in an Antarctic lake that has lain undisturbed for thousands of years beneath a kilometre-thick slab of ice.The surprise haul of dead crustaceans and tardigrades, also known as “water bears” or “moss piglets”, was made by US researchers on a rare mission to drill into the Mercer subglacial lake which lies nearly 400 miles from the south pole. Continue reading...

Before we point the finger at others, maybe it’s time to take a closer look at our own behaviourYou’ll recall, I assume, the ancient riddle about the father and son rushed to casualty after a car crash, where the surgeon, taking one look at the boy, declares, “I can’t operate on him, he’s my son!” As a way of making a point about sexism, this doesn’t really work any more: the twist or “solution” to the riddle (how is this possible?) is meant to be that the surgeon is his mother – but as many a smart aleck has noted, why not his other father?Still, there are echoes of that puzzle in a new study from researchers at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, involving scenarios in which people were asked to guess the sex of someone described as a surgeon. The upshot: when participants heard about some third party, “Person X”, jumping to the conclusion that a surgeon must be male, they judged them to be a sexist bigot. But when presented with a similar question themselves, they did exactly the same. Continue reading...

In our latest collaboration, Ian Sample teams up with Jordan Erica Webber of Chips with Everything to look at why artwork produced using artificial intelligence is forcing us to look at how we define creativityIn October 2018 the British auction house Christie’s became the first to sell a work of art created by an algorithm.The painting, Portrait of Edmond Belamy, was sold for $432,500, which was much more than anyone had been expecting. This groundbreaking sale created some controversy, not least in the AI art world itself. Continue reading...

Planet and moon have been hit by more asteroids in the past 290m years than at any time in previous billionThe rate at which asteroids are slamming into Earth has nearly tripled since the dinosaurs first roamed, according to a survey of the scars left behind.Researchers worked out the rate of asteroid strikes on the moon and the Earth and found that in the past 290m years the number of collisions had increased dramatically. Continue reading...

Chart appears to date from 1885, and was found under lecture hall during clean-outA crumbling roll of canvas-backed paper discovered underneath a lecture theatre in Scotland may be the world’s oldest surviving periodic table chart, experts have said.The chart was found during a clean-out at the University of St Andrews in 2014 and appears to date from 1885 – 16 years after the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev published his method of showing the relationships between the elements in 1869. Continue reading...

Study calls for rules to be tightened over disclosure of money received from drug makersMost patient groups involved in the appraisal of drugs or medical devices for use in the NHS have received money from the manufacturers that they have not declared, research has found.Patient groups are asked to give their views when the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) is deciding whether to approve a drug for use in the NHS in England. However, the researchers said Nice did not have stringent enough rules on the disclosure of any and all funds that patient organisations receive from companies. Continue reading...

Trump likely to present Pentagon findings about changing threat as justification for his planned ‘space force’Donald Trump will unveil a plan on Thursday for a major expansion in US missile defence that will rely on a new generation of space-based sensors.The administration’s long-delayed missile defence review, which the president will present at the Pentagon, will call for the expansion of the US network of sensors and interceptors designed to identify and shoot down incoming projectiles from “rogue states” such as Iran and North Korea. Continue reading...

Research shows a 16% rise in emotional problems and 8% rise in conduct disordersParental separation is more likely to harm the mental health of children if they are aged at least seven when the split occurs, but appears to have no effect on the risks of them getting ill if they are younger, research has found.The research, involving 6,245 children and young people in the UK, is the first British study to explore the links between couple separation or divorce and the impact on the mental wellbeing of children. Family break-up was already known to be one of several childhood experiences that can lead to young people developing mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. Continue reading...

Moving more and strong motor skills seem to help cognitive prowess, results showMoving more might help to keep people’s brains sharp as they age – even in the face of dementia, researchers have said.Scientists have found older adults fared better when it came to cognitive tasks if they clocked up higher levels of daily activity on a wrist-based tracker – something the researchers said picked up everything from exercising to mundane tasks like chopping onions. Continue reading...

The actor will take the lead in a series he has co-created, following those tasked by the president to develop the space-based initiativeSteve Carell is set to head up a new comedy series for Netflix based on Donald Trump’s space force initiative.Related: Schitt's Creek: the funniest sitcom you're (probably) not watching Continue reading...

Using genetically modified bugs to prolong life was ‘fanciful’ until recently, says scientistA “living medicine” made from genetically modified bugs has prolonged the lives of animals with severe metabolic disease in a landmark test of the treatment.Researchers created the medicine by making a common strain of bacteria mop up excess ammonia in the body. High levels can be fatal for people with liver damage and rare genetic disorders. Continue reading...

Kew scientists’ analysis of 124 wild species shows 60% facing possible extinction, risking viability of commercial stockWild coffee species are under threat, with 60% of them facing possible extinction, including Arabica, the original of the world’s most popular form of coffee, researchers say.Most coffee species are found in the forests of Africa and Madagascar. They are threatened by climate change and the loss of natural habitat, as well as by the spread of diseases and pests. Continue reading...

Cotton plant perishes on lunar far side after sprouting on board China’s Chang’e 4 landerThe appearance of a single green leaf hinted at a future in which astronauts would grow their own food in space, potentially setting up residence at outposts on the moon or other planets. Now, barely after it had sprouted, the cotton plant onboard China’s lunar rover has died.The plant relied on sunlight at the moon’s surface, but as night arrived at the lunar far side and temperatures plunged as low as -170C, its short life came to an end. Continue reading...

Rising temperatures can be charted back to the late 1950s, and the last five years were the five hottest on recordLast year was the hottest ever measured, continuing an upward trend that is a direct result of manmade greenhouse gas emissions.The key to the measurements is the oceans. Oceans absorb more than 90% of the heat that results from greenhouse gases, so if you want to measure global warming you really have to measure ocean warming. Continue reading...

The Future Circular Collider would smash particles together in a tunnel 100km longPlans for a machine that would dwarf the Large Hadron Collider have been drawn up by researchers at Cern to take over the baton in the search for new physics in the latter half of the century.The €20bn (£17.8bn) machine, named the Future Circular Collider, would smash particles together inside a 100km (62 mile) tunnel, making it four times the size of the LHC, which at present is the largest scientific instrument on the planet. Continue reading...

Low-carb does not mean no-carb, nor does it mean low-fibre, says Sue Morgan. Vegetables are stuffed full of fibre, points out Dr Nick Evans. The ketogenic diet should not be dismissed as a dangerous fad, says Anna McGuirkLow-carb does not mean no-carb, nor does it mean low-fibre (Blow to the low-carb diet as WHO report says fibre cuts early deaths, 11 January). Your article appears to confuse low carbohydrate and low grain consumption. Proponents of a low-carb diet typically encourage the replacement of highly processed carbohydrates with fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds (all sources of carbohydrate), thereby increasing the amount of fibre consumed as well as the intake of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients.The study actually concluded that the certainty of evidence for relationships and critical outcomes was graded moderate for dietary fibre and low to moderate for whole grains (The Lancet: “Carbohydrate quality and human health: a series of systematic reviews and meta-analyses”). In addition, it included the caveat that high levels of whole grains could cause depletion of iron and other minerals in individuals who are low in these. Continue reading...

Scientists say it may still technically be possible to limit warming to 1.5C if drastic action is taken nowClimate change could be kept in check if a phaseout of all fossil fuel infrastructure were to begin immediately, according to research.It shows that meeting the internationally agreed aspiration of keeping global warming to less than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is still possible. The scientists say it is therefore the choices being made by global society, not physics, which is the obstacle to meeting the goal. Continue reading...

Rapper contributes funds to complete long-gestating land art piece in Arizona, having described the work as ‘life-changing’Kanye West has donated $10m (£7.77m) to the creation of a major work of land art by James Turrell.The money will fund the ongoing construction of Roden Crater in Arizona, which is described on the project’s website as “a controlled environment for the experiencing and contemplation of light”. The completed work will comprise a series of 21 viewing spaces connected by six tunnels, creating “a vast, naked eye observatory for celestial objects and events ranging from obscure and infrequent to the more familiar summer and winter solstice”. Continue reading...

A small cotton shoot is growing onboard Chang’e 4 lunar lander, scientists confirmA small green shoot is growing on the moon after a cotton seed germinated onboard a Chinese lunar lander, scientists said.The sprout has emerged from a lattice-like structure inside a canister after the Chang’e 4 lander touched down earlier this month, according to a series of photos released by the Advanced Technology Research Institute at Chongqing University. Continue reading...

As a tropical field ecologist in Borneo, I learned why science must work with industry to protect the planetLots of academics worry that focusing too much on the real-world impact of research threatens pure, curiosity-driven science. But really the two go hand in hand, especially when it comes to solving the complex question of how we achieve sustainability despite increasing human pressures on our planet.As a tropical field ecologist studying rainforest destruction in Borneo, I saw the impact of the expanding palm oil industry on tropical biodiversity first hand, and so it was always a high priority to ensure the research I was doing made a difference. I was driven by scientific curiosity about how nature responds to the most drastic human activity, but also by the motivation to find solutions. Continue reading...

Contraceptive use and peer pressure can affect whether first sexual experience is positive, says researchMore than half of women and two in five men are losing their virginity before they are ready, potentially affecting their wellbeing and health, researchers say.The team add that focusing only on age is misguided, noting the research showed issues around willingness, peer pressure and contraceptive use can all affect whether the first experience of sex is positive, regardless of age. Continue reading...

Scientists devise method using genetic data and lifestyle to work out who should be screenedWomen may be able to go to their GP to find out their risk of getting breast cancer and choose whether or not to be screened, if a new online calculator devised by scientists is successful.Related: Women with BRCA gene mutations given clearer picture of breast and ovarian cancer risk Continue reading...

Claxton, Norfolk: Geese follow each other closely to reduce the energy they expend, but here the practical is tied up with the emotionalThey came out of a backlit umber sky produced by the cloudbank that had just given us a double rainbow. Now it brought on dusk prematurely. They were pink-footed geese in three silhouetted echelons, and when the first turned westwards the sounds of them poured down upon us as if a door had suddenly been flung open to let those voices out of all that air.Pink-footed geese, en masse, create a strong note that is high like oiled steel, with a hint of nails-on-blackboard shrillness, but it also yields an overlapping music that seems full of shared, windblown exhilaration. I have watched winter geese fly to roost for nearly 50 years and routinely ponder what it is that fills me with such feeling each time. Continue reading...

Short spells of movement help, but research finds overall time spent seated must be cut

The pattern is clinically well known and exemplifies one response to attachment insecurity seen first when children are younger than two, writes Dr John Richer. Plus Mary Montaut on the cult of Nigel FarageGary Younge’s excellent piece on the similarities of Trump and the Brexiters (Trump and the Brexiters must own the mess they lied us into, 11 January) is a reminder of the similar underlying psychological processes at work.The pattern is clinically well known and exemplifies one response to attachment insecurity seen first when children are younger than two. The possibility of showing this response is built into our species after millennia of evolution. That response is called the ambivalently insecure strategy and the child is essentially thinking (unconsciously), “if I keep my parent’s attention on me I shall be safe and won’t die”. Because young children without caretakers die, the child becomes attention-seeking by demanding (“do what I want!”) or whingeing (“poor little me”). When stressed, the child is egocentric and their perceptions of others are distorted by their emotional needs. As time goes on, this often develops into bullying of weaker people and claiming victimhood when firmly confronted (“it’s not fair, you’re being mean to me”). The distorting of reality develops into lying. Such people, when in this state, find it difficult to be objective or to cooperate, and they try to control others to their own ends. This frequently leads to their groups fracturing (Trump administration, Ukip) or to them being surrounded by cowed “yes men”. Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you the following five geometrical puzzles by Catriona Shearer. I hope you discovered the clever way of solving them, without recourse to pages of algebra.1. Orange segments Continue reading...

Study finds nine areas in the north among top 10 highest prescribers in the countryPeople living in deprived areas of England are more likely to be prescribed opioid drugs for pain relief than those in wealthier parts of the country, according to research.A study found GPs in parts of Blackpool and St Helens prescribe the highest levels of opioids in England. Five areas in north-east England and four areas in the north-west were among the top 10 highest prescribers. Continue reading...

Recalling happy events appears to build resilience to mental illness, say scientistsRemembering the good times may help adolescents stave off depression, according to research on teenagers who were at risk of mental illness because of childhood hardships.Scientists at the University of Cambridge found recalling happy events appeared to build their resilience to mental illness, suggesting this could assist in preventing depression later in life. Continue reading...

From astrology’s houses of the zodiac to the ‘lost cosmonauts’, this beautifully written book appraises humanity’s relationship with the starsAt the start of this succinct survey of our undying love affair with the cosmos, Ken Hollings notes that we are all, even in this scientific age, “secretly familiar with our star sign”. His book’s 12 chapters echo the 12 houses of the zodiac. It is not a defence of astrology, though, rather, a wonderfully impressionistic exploration of how we have tried to make sense of the stars, from ancient cultures such as the Maya and the medieval idea that astronomy was an art, to the “lost cosmonauts” – the Soviet astronauts who preceded Yuri Gagarin but never returned, their capsules lost in space.Hollings’s beautifully written account takes the reader on some delightfully unexpected cosmic journeys. A riff on how, through polished glass, stars look like snowflakes, leads to Robert Hooke’s comparison of snowflakes and urine crystals, and ends with an Apollo astronaut describing how in space “a urine dump at sunset” was “the most beautiful sight in orbit”. Continue reading...

There are limits to being relentlessly upbeat. Embrace pessimism – accepting it will all end in ruin releases us to liveEarly on New Year’s Day, I began scrolling through the messages people had left on social media. Usually you find a note of hope among popping corks and exploding fireworks. Not this year. All I found were posts like “2018 was a terrible year. Don’t expect more from 2019” or “I dread the year to come”.I started to suspect that those I followed on social media were all just a bit depressing. But that theory evaporated when a new batch of articles trying to capture the spirit of our age appeared. “It’s all over,” one piece declared. “All that’s left to us is making the best of a bad situation,” another announced. A fascinating new book bore the title The Worst is Yet to Come. Continue reading...

Five beautiful geometrical puzzlesUPDATE: To read the solutions click hereToday’s puzzles come from Catriona Shearer, a maths teacher at a school in north Essex, whose colourful geometry puzzles have recently gained a following on social media. These brainteasers are certainly pretty, and some are pretty tricky too!Here are five of her best. Continue reading...

Recommendations focus on how much people should eat during the day to stay healthyMinisters and public health experts have long been telling us we eat too much sugar, saturated fat and salt but less attention has been paid to the size of the portions on the plate. Now a new guide to portion sizes warning that people are eating too much without realising has been launched by nutritionists, to suggest how much food people should eat during the day to stay healthy and help combat the obesity crisis.The British Nutrition Foundation’s (BNF) guide is designed, it says, to complement the government advice on the sorts of foods to eat, as laid out in the Eatwell Guide. It spells out how much of each sort of food – starchy carbohydrates, protein, dairy, fruit and vegetables and oils and spreads – constitute a healthy diet within the 2,000 calories a day that women need and 2,500 for men. Continue reading...