During the first quarter 2010/11, Alstom`s Sales Showed Resilience, Whilst Orders Were Impacted by a Lack of Large Projects

July 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

During the first quarter of 2010/11 (from 1 April to 30 June 2010), orders
booked by Alstom (Paris:ALO) amounted to €3.1 billion. Sales, at €4.7 billion,
were slightly down as compared to the same period of last year1.

Power received orders of €2.0 billion during the first quarter. The lack of
large projects was partly offset by the resilience of small and medium-sized
contracts, particularly in service and retrofit. Transport registered €1.1
billion of new orders, including a major commercial success in Russia.

During the first quarter 2010/11, sales grew by 9% in Transport, whilst they
started to decline in Power, down 6% versus the first quarter 2009/10, as a
consequence of the order evolution over the last fiscal year in this Sector.

The total backlog remained stable at €42 billion on 30 June 2010, benefiting
from a €1.3 billion currency effect. It represented 27 months of sales.

Key figures

Actual figures 2009/10 2010/11 Variation Q1/Q1
(in € million) Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Act. Org.
Orders received 4,768 2,366 4,223 3,562 3,069 -36% -38%
Sales 4,806 4,877 4,691 5,276 4,743 -1% -5%

“This first quarter confirms the resilience of small and medium-sized contracts
in Power but, despite the busy tendering activity, the Group still faces
challenges to register large orders as customers continue to delay their
investments in new power plants. In Transport, the market remains sound,
offering a number of opportunities. Sales have grown in Transport, whilst, as
expected, they have started declining in Power, after the strong decrease in the
order intake of the last fiscal year “, said Patrick Kron, Chairman & Chief
Executive Officer of Alstom.

Sector Review2

Power

Order intake at €2.0 billion for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2010/11
showed a decrease of 35% versus the first quarter of last year. This evolution
reflects the challenging commercial environment for new equipment.

Thermal Systems & Products received small and medium-sized orders only in the
first quarter of the fiscal year 2010/11. The Thermal Services Business
registered a large number of projects for both retrofit and service, as well as
operation and maintenance contracts in Spain. In Renewables, the main orders
booked in the first quarter were for hydro contracts in the Americas, as well as
for wind turbines in Brazil.

Sales in Power, at €3.2 billion, decreased by 6% (-10% on an organic basis3) in
comparison with the same period of last year, due to the expected slowdown of
the turnover in Thermal Systems & Products.

Transport

Orders, at €1.1 billion in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2010/11,
remained sustained despite being down 37% as compared with the first quarter
2009/10, which included several large contracts in Europe and South America.

The main orders booked in the first quarter 2010/11 included locomotives in
Russia, as well as contracts in Sweden for suburban trains and maintenance.

In the first quarter of the fiscal year 2010/11, sales, at €1.6 billion, were up
by 9% (+7% on an organic basis3) compared to the same period of the last fiscal
year.

Key events of the first quarter 2010/11

On 20 May 2010, Alstom entered the solar market by investing $55 million in
BrightSource Energy Inc. This US privately-owned company specialises in
designing, building and operating tower-based solar thermal power plants.

On 2 June 2010, Alstom acquired Amstar, a coating services company in the United
States, which had sales of approximately $11 million in 2009 and employed 50
people. This acquisition strengthened Alstom`s service offerings with advanced
technologies that improve power plant component life.

On 7 June 2010, Alstom and Schneider Electric completed the transaction with
Areva for the acquisition of Areva T&D, its transmission and distribution
businesses, after obtaining the approvals of the relevant competition
authorities and the French Commission des Participations et des Transferts
(CPT). With this acquisition, Alstom created a third Sector, named Alstom Grid,
constituting the high voltage energy transmission business of the Group.
Alstom`s expertise in power generation combined with the capabilities acquired
in grid management positions the Group in the key market of Smart Grid.

On 19 June 2010, Alstom, Transmashholding and Kazakh Railways (KTZ) signed an
agreement for the creation of a joint company to manufacture electric
locomotives in Kazakhstan.

On 24 June 2010, Alstom inaugurated a new production facility in Chattanooga,
Tennessee, (USA) for steam and gas turbines, large turbo-generators and related
equipment for the North American fossil fuel and nuclear power generation
market. It will also retrofit existing steam turbines with leading edge
technology.

Financial situation

During the first quarter 2010/11, Alstom turned into a net debt position, due to
the financing of Areva Transmission for €2.3 billion, the payment of the
dividend for €364 million as well as the impact on the free cash flow of the low
book-to-bill ratio.

Outlook

The Group confirms that the operating margin for the two fiscal years 2010/11
and 2011/12 should be between 7% and 8%, based upon proper contract execution
and gradual recovery of demand.

***

Note 1: Orders and sales for Alstom Grid were not yet available on 30 June 2010
for release. The new Sector will be fully consolidated on 30 September 2010 in
the half year results and will account for four months.

Note 2: The reported figures by Sector are presented in appendix 1. A geographic
breakdown of reported orders and sales is provided in appendix 2. As for all
figures mentioned in this release, these are unaudited.

Note 3: i.e. excluding any currency & scope impacts. For this quarter, these are
mostly positive currency effects.

This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on
current plans and forecasts of Alstom`s management. Such forward-looking
statements are relevant to the current scope of activity and are by their nature
subject to a number of important risk and uncertainty factors (such as those
described in the documents filed by Alstom with the French AMF) that could cause
actual results to differ from the plans, objectives and expectations expressed
in such forward-looking statements. These such forward-looking statements speak
only as of the date on which they are made, and Alstom undertakes no obligation
to update or revise any of them, whether as a result of new information, future
events or otherwise.

APPENDIX 1 – SECTOR BREAKDOWN BY QUARTER

2009/10 2010/11
Orders received Var. Actual Var. Organic
(in € million) Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 FY Q1 Q1/Q1 Q1/Q1
Power 3,000 1,731 2,652 2,052 9,435 1,950 -35% -38%
Thermal Systems & Products* 1,414 435 1,837 604 4,290 405 -71% -72%
Thermal Services* 1,203 970 573 1,272 4,018 1,203 0% -5%
Renewables* 383 326 242 176 1,127 342 -11% -15%
Transport 1,768 635 1,571 1,510 5,484 1,119 -37% -39%
Alstom 4,768 2,366 4,223 3,562 14,919 3,069 -36% -38%

2009/10 2010/11
Sales Var. Actual Var. Organic
(in € million) Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 FY Q1 Q1/Q1 Q1/Q1
Power 3,368 3,527 3,217 3,789 13,901 3,170 -6% -10%
Thermal Systems & Products* 1,766 2,010 1,803 2,167 7,746 1,574 -11% -14%
Thermal Services* 1,184 1,039 973 1,157 4,353 1,187 0% -5%
Renewables* 418 478 441 465 1,802 409 -2% -8%
Transport 1,438 1,350 1,474 1,487 5,749 1,573 +9% +7%
Alstom 4,806 4,877 4,691 5,276 19,650 4,743 -1% -5%

(*) Figures given for comparison and analysis purposes only

APPENDIX 2 – GEOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN

Orders received by destination 2009/10 % 2010/11 %
(in € million) Q1 Contrib. Q1 Contrib.
Europe 3,232 68% 1,688 55%
North America 579 12% 485 16%
South & Central America 308 6% 308 10%
Africa / Middle East 83 2% 191 6%
Asia / Pacific 566 12% 397 13%
TOTAL 4,768 100% 3,069 100%

Sales by destination 2009/10 % 2010/11 %
(in € million) Q1 Contrib. Q1 Contrib.
Europe 2,457 51% 2,328 49%
North America 775 16% 645 14%
South & Central America 229 5% 308 6%
Africa / Middle East 824 17% 809 17%
Asia / Pacific 521 11% 653 14%
TOTAL 4,806 100% 4,743 100%

Press Contact
Philippe Kasse, Stéphane Farhi (Corporate)
Tel: +33 1 41 49 29 82 / 33 08
philippe.kasse@chq.alstom.com
stephane.farhi@chq.alstom.com
or
Investor Relations
Emmanuelle Châtelain
Tel: + 33 1 41 49 37 38
emmanuelle.chatelain@chq.alstom.com
Website
www.alstom.com

Copyright Business Wire 2010

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French PM on euro “parity” referred to trend-source

June 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

June 4 (Reuters) – French Prime Minister Francois Fillon was referring to the general evolution of the exchange rate between the euro and the dollar when he referred to the “parity” between the two currencies, a source close to the prime minister said on Friday.

Speaking at a news conference earlier, Fillon said: “I only see good news in the parity between the euro and dollar,”, using the French word “parite” which means parity. He later used the same word in a different context to mean the general rate. (Reporting by Sophie Louet; writing by James Mackenzie)

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Oldest mammalian hair found in France

May 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 20 (ANI): The oldest sample of mammalian hair has been found in a 100 million-year-old lump of amber.

The scales on the hair are similar to those found on the hairs of today”s mammals.

This may signify that the structure of mammalian hair has not changed for much of our evolution, according to Romain Vullo at the University of Rennes I in France, who discovered the hair.

“Perhaps mammalian hair does its job so well that it does not need to evolve,” New Scientist quoted him, as saying.

Vullo came across the amber-encased hair in the Font-de-Benon quarry in Charente-Maritime, southwestern France.

The site was a lush tropical forest around 100 million years ago.

The hair may have belonged to a small opossum-like animal.

Four teeth discovered in the same quarry suggest the animal may have been Arcantiodelphys marchandi, one of the oldest known marsupials. (ANI)

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It’s official: Men lie more than women

May 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 18 (ANI): A new study has confirmed what many ladies already knew: Men tell more lies than women.

According to the study, on an average, a man will tell three lies a day, racking up 1,092 whoppers in a year. However, an average woman will come out with 728, fibbing just twice a day, reports The Daily Express.

The study, which was commissioned by researchers at the Science Museum in London, found that 82 per cent of females questioned said telling a lie ate away at their conscience but only 70 per cent of men confessed to suffering pangs of guilt.

“Lying may seem to be an unavoidable part of human nature but it’s an important part of social interaction,” said Katie Maggs, the museum’s associate medical curator.

“The jury is still out as to whether human quirks like lying are the result of our genes, evolution or our upbringing.”

OnePoll spoke to 3,000 adults for the survey.

The top 10 lies men tell their partners include “I had no signal”, “I’m on my way”, “I’m stuck in traffic”, “Sorry, I missed your call”, “You’ve lost weight” and “It’s just what I’ve always wanted”. (ANI)

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Intelligent, creative computers come closer to reality

April 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, Apr 26 (ANI): Taking a leap towards intelligent and creative computers, researchers have now created a brain-like process of circuit evolution in an organic molecular layer that can solve complex problems.

The advance by the international research team from Japan and Michigan Technological University is the first time a brain-like “evolutionary circuit” has been realized.

This computer is massively parallel—the world””s fastest supercomputers can only process bits one at a time in each of their channels. Their circuit allows instantaneous changes of 300 bits.

Their processor can produce solutions to problems for which algorithms on computers are unknown, like predictions of natural calamities and outbreaks of disease.

To prove this unique feature, the researchers have mimicked two natural phenomena in the molecular layer—heat diffusion and the evolution of cancer cells.

The monolayer has intelligence— it can solve many problems on the same grid.

Their molecular processor heals itself if there is a defect, reports Nature.

This remarkable self-healing property comes from the self-organizing ability of the molecular monolayer.

No existing man-made computer has this property, but our brain does: if a neuron dies, another neuron takes over its function.

The work is described in the Nature Physics paper. (ANI)

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New species of human found in ‘death trap’

April 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The discovery of two human-like skeletons in South Africa has shed further light on the evolution of humans.

The skeletal remains of the human-like creatures were found at the base of what was once a network of underground caves, described by scientists as a “death trap”.

The find is set to provide more fuel for the never-ending debate over the evolution of humans.

Two papers published today in the journal Science describe the fossils of what has been called Australopithecus sediba and the environment in which they were found.

The partial skeletons of a juvenile male and adult female were found close together in sediments dated between 1.95 and 1.78 million years old.

“From looking at the sediments you can get an idea that the material has been washed down from a higher location,” says one of the Australian authors, Dr Andy Herries of the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

The researchers, who included Dr Lee Berger from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, found the fossils in a cave called Malapa in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Area.

They believe where the fossils were found was once the base of an underground cave system that extended tens of metres below the surface.

The entrance to the caves would have been a hole in the ground.

“You find that fossils actually fall into these caves, they die, they become partly mummified and then they get redistributed into lower sections by floodwater,” said Dr Herries, who was involved in dating the sediments.

“It would have been what we call a death trap.”

The first bone was picked up by Professor Berger’s nine-year-old son, Matthew, who says he thought he had discovered an animal bone.

“I turned the rock over and I saw the clavicle sticking out – that’s the collar bone,” he said. “I didn’t know what it was at first. I thought it was just an antelope.

“So I called my dad over and about five metres away he started swearing and I was like, ‘what did I do wrong?’ and he’s like, ‘nothing, nothing – you found a hominid’.”

The researchers also found fossils of at least 25 animals in the cave, including large-toothed cats, a brown hyena, a wild dog, antelopes and a horse.

Debate on human origins

Dr Herries says the new fossils add to an increasingly complicated picture on the evolution of humans (Homo sapiens).

“I’m sure that this fossil will create huge amounts of new debate on exactly what the origins of Homo are,” he said.

“It gets more complicated by every fossil that’s found.”

Dr Herries says most scientists believe the genus Homo evolved from the genus Australopithecus and until now the most likely candidate was Australopithecus africanus.

He says Australopithecus sediba had a small brain like the primitive Australopithecus africanus, which died out around 2.1 million years ago.

But its other features, especially its pelvis, are similar to Homo erectus which appeared around 1.8 million years ago.

“It would have walked in a very modern way,” Dr Herries said.

He says the features of the new species are an intermediate between Australopithecus africanus and Homo erectus, suggesting it provides a link between them.

“There seems to be a very clear transition from one to the other,” Dr Herries said.

Predecessor puzzle

One fly in the ointment of this theory is that there are other species that have been classified in the genus Homo that appear in East Africa 2.3 million years ago, making Australopithecus sediba too young to be a predecessor of Homo.

But Dr Herries says Australopithecus sediba may have evolved a lot earlier than the specimen found at Malapa.

And some experts argue that many earlier Homo specimens are actually Australopithecus, he says.

Australian anthropologist Professor Colin Groves of the Australian National University in Canberra disputes the analysis of the latest fossil find.

He thinks the new species should be classified as Homo.

“It was a very strange decision to assign them to Australopithecus,” Professor Groves said.

“Except for its cranial capacity – and I have my doubts about the way they estimated that – all its characters are those of Homo.”

He describes the specimens as “intensely interesting” because they confirm that early Homo species existed in South Africa as well as in East Africa around the same time.

“What they’ve probably found is the South African sister species of Homo habilis,” Professor Groves said.

What’s in a name?

Dr Herries agrees there will be debate on the classification of the new fossils.

“I think a lot of people will be surprised it is called Australopithecus,” he said.

But Dr Herries says some of the disagreement over classification can be explained by the fact that so many early human fossils were mere fragments which encouraged one classification over another.

He says Australopithecus sediba fossils are the most complete skeletons of early humans of that time.

“It’s got a mosaic of characteristics. It’s got some characteristics that look very Homo-like and some characteristics that look very Australopithecine,” Dr Herries said.

“So if you were to find one part of it you might find the bit that looks more like Australopithecus. If you found another part you might find a part that looks a bit more like Homo. So you would end up classifying it one way or the other.”

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How life might evolve with “exotic” biochemistry and solvents

September 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, September 18 (ANI): Scientists at a new interdisciplinary research group in Austria are working to uncover how life might evolve with “exotic” biochemistry and solvents, such as sulfuric acid instead of water.

The research group for Alternative Solvents as a Basis for Life Supporting Zones in (Exo-) Planetary Systems was established by the University of Vienna.

Traditionally, planets that might sustain life are looked for in the ‘habitable zone’, the region around a star in which Earth-like planets with carbon dioxide, water vapor and nitrogen atmospheres could maintain liquid water on their surfaces.

Consequently, scientists have been looking for biomarkers produced by extraterrestrial life with metabolisms resembling the terrestrial ones, where water is used as a solvent and the building blocks of life, amino acids, are based on carbon and oxygen.

However, these may not be the only conditions under which life could evolve.

“It is time to make a radical change in our present geocentric mindset for life as we know it on Earth,” said scientist Johannes Leitner.

“Even though this is the only kind of life we know, it cannot be ruled out that life forms have evolved somewhere that neither rely on water nor on a carbon and oxygen based metabolism,” he added.

One requirement for a life-supporting solvent is that it remains liquid over a large temperature range.

Water is liquid between 0 degree Celsius and 100 degrees C, but other solvents exist which are liquid over more than 200 degrees C.

Such a solvent would allow an ocean on a planet closer to the central star.

The reverse scenario is also possible. A liquid ocean of ammonia could exist much further from a star.

Furthermore, sulfuric acid can be found within the cloud layers of Venus and it is now known that lakes of methane/ethane cover parts of the surface of the Saturnian satellite Titan.

Consequently, the discussion on potential life and the best strategies for its detection is ongoing and not only limited to exoplanets and habitable zones.

The newly established research group at the University of Vienna, together with international collaborators, will investigate the properties of a range of solvents other than water, including their abundance in space, thermal and biochemical characteristics as well as their ability to support the origin and evolution of life supporting metabolisms. (ANI)

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Scientists map melting history of Greenland’s ice sheet

September 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, September 17 (ANI): Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have mapped the history of the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

Numerous drillings have been made through both Greenland’s ice sheet and small ice caps near the coast.

By analyzing every single annual layer in the kilometres long ice cores, researchers can get detailed information about the climate of the past.

But now, the Danish researcher Bo Vinther and colleagues from the Centre for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, in collaboration with researchers from Canada, France and Russia, have found an entirely new way of interpreting the information from the ice core drillings.

“Ice cores from different drillings show different climate histories. This could be because they were drilled at very different places on and near Greenland, but it could also be due to changes in the elevation of the ice sheet, because the elevation itself causes different temperatures,” explained Bo Vinther about the theory.

Today, the ice sheet is more than three kilometres thick at its highest point and thinning out towards the coast.

Four of the drillings analyzed are from the central ice sheet, while two of the drillings are from small ice caps outside of the ice sheet itself.

By comparing the Oxygen-18 content in all of the annual layers from the four drillings through the ice sheet with the Oxygen-18 content of the same annual layers in the small ice caps, Bo Vinther has calculated the elevation course through 11,700 years.

Just after the ice age the elevation of the ice sheet rose slightly because when the climate transitions from ice age to warm age, there is a rapid increase in precipitation.

But at the same time, the areas lying near the coast begin to decrease in size, because the ice is melting at the edge.

When the ice melts at the edge, it slowly causes the entire ice sheet to ‘collapse’ and become lower.

The calculations show that in the course of about 3,000 years, the elevation changed and became up to 600 meters lower in the coastal areas.

But in the middle, it was a slow process, where the elevation decreased around 150 meters in the course of around 6,000 years.

It then stabilized.

The new results show the evolution of elevation of the ice sheet throughout 11,700 years and they show that the ice sheet is very sensitive to the temperature.

The results can be used to make new calculations for models predicting future consequences of climate changes. (ANI)

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Scientists unravel chemistry of Titan’s hazy atmosphere

September 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, September 16 (ANI): In a new research, a team of scientists has unraveled the chemical evolution of the orange-brownish colored atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan, the only solar system body besides Venus and Earth with a solid surface and thick atmosphere.

Scientists at University of Hawai’i at Manoa carried out the research.

The UH Manoa team, including Xibin Gu and Seol Kim, conducted simulation experiments mimicking the chemical reactions in Titan’s atmosphere utilizing crossed molecular beams in which the consequence of a single collision between molecules can be followed.

The team’s experiments indicate that triacetylene can be formed by a single collision of a “radical” ethynyl molecule and a diacetylene molecule.

An ethynyl radical is produced in Titan’s atmosphere by the photodissociation of acetylene by ultraviolet light.

Photodissociation is a process in which a chemical compound is broken down by photons.

“Surprisingly, the photochemical models show inconsistent mechanisms for the production of polyynes,” said Kaiser, who is the principal investigator of this study.

The mechanism involved in the formation of triacetylene, was also confirmed by accompanying theoretical calculations by Alexander Mebel, a theoretical chemist at Florida International University.

These theoretical computations also provide the 3D distribution of electrons in atoms and thus the overall energy level of a molecule.

To apply these findings to the real atmosphere of Titan, Danie Liang and Yuk Yung, planetary scientists at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica and California Institute of Technology (Caltech), respectively, performed photochemical modeling studies of Titan’s atmosphere.

All data together suggest that triacetylene may serve as a building block to form more complex and longer polyynes and produce potential precursors for the aerosol-based layers of haze surrounding Titan.

The study demonstrated for the first time that a sensible combination of laboratory simulation experiments with theory and modeling studies can shed light on decade old unsolved problems crucial to understand the origin and chemical evolution of the solar system.

The researchers hope to unravel next the mystery of the missing ethane lakes on Titan – postulated to exist for half a century, but not detected conclusively within the framework of the Cassini-Huygens mission.

In the future, the UH Manoa team will combine the research results with terrestrial-based observations of Titan’s atmosphere. (ANI)

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Ancient oceans yield clues to the origins of animal life on Earth

September 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, September 10 (ANI): Analysis of a rock type found only in the world’s oldest oceans has shed new light on how large animals first got a foothold on the Earth.

By analysing the isotopes of chromium in iron-rich sediments formed in the ancient oceans, a scientific team, led by Professor Robert Frei at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, has found that a rise in atmospheric oxygen levels 580 million years ago was closely followed by the evolution of animal life.

The data offers new insight into how animal life – and ultimately humans – first came to roam the planet.

“Because animals evolved in the sea, most previous research has focussed on oceanic oxygen levels,” explained Newcastle University’s Dr Simon Poulton, one of the authors of the research paper.

“Our research confirms for the first time that a rise in atmospheric oxygen was the driving force for oxygenation of the oceans 580 million years ago, and that this was the catalyst for the evolution of large complex animals,” he added.

Distinctive chromium isotope signals occur when continental rocks are altered and weathered as a result of oxygen levels rising in the atmosphere.

The chromium released by this weathering is then washed into the seas and deposited in the deepest oceans – trapped in iron-rich rocks on the sea bed.

Using this new data, the research team has not only been able to establish the trigger for the evolution of animals, but have also demonstrated that oxygen began to pulse into the atmosphere earlier than previously thought.

“Oxygen levels actually began to rise 2.8 billion years ago,” explained Dr Poulton.

“But, instead of this rise being steady and gradual over time, what we saw in our data was a very unstable situation with short-lived episodes of free oxygen in the atmosphere early in Earth’s history, followed by plummeting levels around 2 billion years ago,” he said.

“It was not until a second rise in atmospheric oxygen 580 million years ago that larger complex animals were able to get a foothold on the Earth,” he added. (ANI)

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Song birds have to deal with cover artists too

September 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 9 (ANI): Just like great singers among humans, birds too have to deal with cover artists who copy songs.

A new research has revealed that some bird species have evolved to sing the same tune as their rivals, in order to compete effectively.

Led by Dr. Joseph Tobias and Dr Nathalie Seddon from the Edward Grey Institute, University of Oxford, the research team analysed the calls and songs of two antbird species that were living side-by-side in the Amazon rainforest- the Peruvian warbling-antbird and the yellow-breasted warbling-antbird.

The study was aimed at investigating their similar songs, and, in particular, at testing the theory that the birds’ songs could become increasingly similar to enable effective communication between competing species.

The above notion has attracted controversy as many scientists have argued that convergence in territorial or mating signals results in needless confrontation or crossbreeding and the creation of hybrids.

“Biologists have long been fascinated by convergence in ecological traits as it offers tangible evidence of evolution and the forces of selection by which it operates, but until now there is no clear evidence that social competition between animal species can produce convergent signals. We examined this idea by analysing the structure and function of songs in two birds which we knew to be strong social competitors,” said Tobias.

The researchers studied the species in Peru and Bolivia at one site where they lived together, and two sites where they lived in isolation.

Firstly, they recorded three sets of signals-songs, calls, and plumage colour of both species (including a total of 504 songs from 150 individuals).

Later, they played them back to individuals of each species to test the significance of songs of both types.

The results showed that territorial songs of both species were extremely similar particularly where they lived together, such that territorial birds treated songs of both species as equally threatening.

In the meantime, they discovered that non-territorial signals like calls and plumage were highly divergent.

“In effect, the territorial songs of these birds are more or less interchangeable in design and function. Given that they last shared a common ancestor more than 3 million years ago, it is almost equivalent to humans and chimpanzees – which diverged around 5 million years ago – using the same language to settle disputes over resources” said Tobias.

“Our results provide the first compelling evidence that social interaction can cause convergent evolution in species competing for space and resources.

They also suggest that while competition drives convergence in territorial songs, this is offset by divergence in non-competitive signals such as plumage colour to promote species recognition and reduce the chance of interbreeding,” he added.

The study has been published in Evolution.(ANI)

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Spare gene in fish provides raw materials for evolution of new Traits

September 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, September 4 (ANI): In a new research, scientists have discovered that a duplicate copy of a gene involved in embryonic development of fish has taken up a newer role in the evolution of fish scales.

Scientists have suspected that spare parts in the genome-extra copies of functional genes that arise when genes or whole genomes get duplicated-might sometimes provide the raw materials for the evolution of new traits.

Now, researchers say that they have discovered a prime example of this in fish.

The researchers show that a duplicate copy of a gene involved in embryonic development has taken up a newer and decidedly less essential role in the development of fish scales.

Zebrafish carrying a mutant version of that extra fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (fgfr1) gene show decreases in their scale formation.

What’s more, the spare fgfr1 gene is at the root of similar scale loss seen in domesticated carp, which have been selectively bred by humans for the last 2,000 years.

“Our finding is an excellent case for (gene) duplication supporting diverse forms,” said Matthew Harris of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology.

“By ‘tweaking’ the use of one of the two copies of the fish fgfr1, the teleost order that contains zebrafish and carp have a specialized ‘toolbox’ gene that now controls adult-specific variation in form,” added Nicolas Rohner, also of the Max Planck Institute.

Fish species outnumber all other vertebrates combined and include many with spectacular features to match the diverse environments in which they live, according to Harris and Rohner.

Teleost fish in particular represent the largest assemblage of vertebrates, comprising over 26,000 species with astonishing diversity in their form and physiology.

Although little is known about the genetic basis of that diversity, it is clear that gene duplication is commonplace within teleost groups, providing a source of genetic raw material for selection.

To further explore in the new study, the researchers first examined mutant strains of zebrafish in search of those with changes to their fins, skulls, or scales, all structures that tend to vary among species.

They focused their attention on one with fewer scales and in an unusual pattern-an abnormality they traced to fgfr1.

“We were surprised to find severe coding mutations in such an important developmental gene to cause an adult-specific and viable phenotype,” Harris said.

Further study showed the reason why: zebrafish maintain two copies of fgfr1 that function redundantly during embryonic development. One of those two genes is also required for the formation of the scales in juveniles. (ANI)

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Poor money savers likely to be overeaters, smokers, love cheats

September 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 4 (ANI): People who are poor at saving money are likely to have impulsive behaviour such as overeating, smoking and infidelity, according to a new study.

The study conducted through the BBC website measured people’s financial impulsivity by asking whether they would they prefer to receive 45 pounds in three days or 70 pounds in three months.

The findings revealed that nearly half of those who preferred the smaller-sooner sum of money were more likely to show a raft of other impulsive behaviours.

“One of the big questions about people’s financial planning is whether decisions to spend or save come from personal knowledge and experience of money matters or whether they reflect someone’s personality more generally,” said Dr Stian Reimers, ESRC Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution at UCL.

“Our research shows that people with an impulsive money-today attitude ignore the future in other ways.

“For example, they are more likely to smoke and more likely to be overweight, which may reflect a preference for immediate pleasure of nicotine and food over long-term good health,” Reimers added.

Moreover, people who chose to take the smaller-sooner amount of money were also more likely to admit to having had an affair in recent years.

The study also showed that those most likely to make impulsive financial choices were young, poorly educated, and on lower incomes.

“Learning to make decisions that lead to long-term happiness, not just instantaneous gratification, could benefit us all. Simple techniques can help reduce impulsivity: like imagining how you’d feel about your decision in a year’s time, or trying to avoid making decisions in the heat of the moment,” Reimers added.

The study appears in journal Personality and Individual Differences. (ANI)

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How birds and mammals evolved to have 4-chambered hearts

September 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 3 (ANI): Scientists have discovered the first genetic link that can explain how the heart evolved from being a three-chambered to four-chambered organ.

The discovery has shed light on how cold-blooded birds and mammals became warm-blooded.

Frogs have a three-chambered heart consisting of two atria and one ventricle, which sends a concoction of blood that is not fully oxygenated to the rest of the frog’s body.

On the other hand, turtles’ hearts have three chambers, but the single ventricle starts developing a wall, or septum, which makes the heart send blood that is slightly richer in oxygen than the frog’s.

However, birds and mammals have a fully septated ventricle-a bona fide four-chambered heart, which ensures the separation of low-pressure circulation to the lungs, and high-pressure pumping into the rest of the body.

As warm-blooded animals, we use a lot of energy and therefore need a great supply of oxygen for our activities. The four-chambered heart gives us an evolutionary advantage- we’re able to roam, hunt and hide even in the cold of night, or the chill of winter.

But many humans suffer from congenital heart disease, a very common birth defect, which is usually caused by VSD, or ventricular septum defects-a condition that is frequently correctable with surgery

Benoit Bruneau of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, who studies the transcription factor, Tbx5, in early stages of embryological development, has called it “a master regulator of the heart.”

He teamed up with scientists at Michigan State University to examine a wide evolutionary spectrum of animals and found that in the cold-blooded, Tbx5 is expressed uniformly throughout the forming heart’s wall.

On the other hand, warm-blooded embryos showed the protein very clearly restricted to the left side of the ventricle, which allowed for the separation between right and left ventricle.

Interestingly, in the turtle, the molecular signature was found to be transitional as well.

A higher concentration of Tbx5 is found on the left side of the heart, gradually dissipating towards the right.

“The great thing about looking backwards like we’ve done with reptilian evolution is that it gives us a really good handle on how we can now look forward and try to understand how a protein like Tbx5 is involved in forming the heart and how in the case of congenital heart disease its function is impaired,” concluded Bruneau. (ANI)

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A unique story of parallel evolution in moths unraveled

September 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 2 (ANI): A new revision of the taxonomic relationships among one group of moths, the subfamily Dioptinae, sheds light on the diversity of tropical moth species and presents a unique story of parallel evolution.

“These diurnal moths are a microcosm of butterfly evolution,” said James Miller, author of the new Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History and a research associate in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the Museum.

“There are about 500 spectacular dioptine species, all of which evolved from a common ancestor-a nondescript brown nocturnal moth-into a diversity of butterfly mimics,” he added.

Miller qualifies this with a technicality, though, noting that no one is sure whether butterflies or diurnal moths evolved their colors first (and who is really mimicking whom).

The wing pattern diversity within the subfamily is enormous: some species mimic clear-winged butterflies and inhabit the darker parts of the forest understory where their co-mimics fly.

Still others have wings that are colored blue and yellow and feed on melastomes.

About 100 species feed on Passiflora, the poisonous passion flowers famous for being consumed by the caterpillars of Heliconious butterflies.

In fact, although most of the Dioptinae are diurnal, or fly during the day, a few species like those in Xenomigia have re-conquered the night.

Although most dioptines are neotropical, ranging from lowland jungles to cloud forests at 4,000 meters in the Andes, Phryganidia californica occurs in the western United States.

Miller’s new revision of the Dioptinae is the first systematic look at this group in almost a century.

After studying over 16,700 specimens housed at 38 different institutions and private collections around the world, Miller discovered and described 64 new species and seven new genera, bringing the total to 456 species in 43 genera.

Some of the new species were found during field work in parts of the tropical Americas poorly explored by lepidopterists.

Even so, there is much more work to be done on the Dioptinae.

Miller estimates that there are about 100 to 150 species in collections that still need to be described and inserted into the taxonomy, and he thinks that additional fieldwork in under-sampled countries like Bolivia and Colombia will ultimately bring the total number of species to between 700 and 800.

Miller’s careful analysis has dissected the taxonomic groups, finding that 47 of the previously named species could be included within another existing species. (ANI)

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India’s first moon mission may be over, says project director

August 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Bangalore, Aug 29 (ANI):India’s ambitious moon mission — Chandrayaan-I — has probably ended after losing radio contact since Saturday noon, said its project director M. Annadurai, but Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair said scientists will evaluate the performance of the mission over the next two days before deciding whether or not to call it off.

Earlier, in the day the flamboyant spacecraft had lost the radio control at around 1.30 a.m. IST, increasing fears of a premature end of the spacecraft.

According to a press release by the ISRO, the deep Space Network at Byalalu near Bangalore has not received any signal form the spacecraft since midnight.

“Radio contact with Chandrayaan-I spacecraft was abruptly lost at 0130 Hrs (IST) on August 29, 2009. Deep Space Network at Byalalu near Bangalore received the data from Chandrayaan-I during the previous orbit upto 0025 Hrs (IST),”the press release states.he ISRO has ordered for a detailed review of the data received by the spacecraft, “Detailed review of the Telemetry data received from the spacecraft is in progress and health of the spacecraft subsystems is being analysed,” press release states.

Earlier, on July 17, the flamboyant moon mission Chandrayaan-I, had lost a major sensor. The scientific community then feared the premature end of the spacecraft.

The Chandrayaan-I, which was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh in October 2008, has completed over 350 days in orbit making more than 3400 orbits around the Moon and providing large volume of data from sophisticated sensors.

The spacecraft was equipped with Terrain Mapping Camera, Hyper-spectral Imager, Moon Mineralogy Mapper etc.,

The ISRO scientists expressed confidence of attaining most of the scientific objectives of the mission.

Addressing the Ninth convocation of the International Institute of Information and Technology at Bangalore last month, Nair said the tracking and detection of several factors by Chandrayaan are important steps in mapping the mineralogical composition of moon’s surface, which in turn would enable further study in its origin and evolution.

“I think I am happy to say that Chandrayaan has been completely successful in collecting all the data what we wanted. First was the three dimensional of the lunar surface, also getting the mineral content of the surface and then trying to use the extra instruments,” said Nair.

“All this went on very well and we are more or less very happy that the mission is complete,” he added.

Nair also added that the second moon mission would be launched by 2012. (ANI)

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Now a model to predict when stock markets will crash

August 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, August 29 (ANI): A team of physicists and financiers have shown that it is possible to predict when growth in any stock exchange will become unsustainable and the market will crash, by successfully predicting a steep fall in the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Used for the purpose was a model that employed concepts from the physics of complex atomic systems, developed by Didier Sornette of the Financial Crisis Observatory in Zurich, Switzerland, and Wei-Xing Zhou of the East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai.

Sornette, Zhou, and colleagues have revealed that their idea was that if a plot of the logarithm of the market’s value over time would deviates upwards from a straight line, it’s a clear warning that people are investing simply because the market is rising rather than paying heed to the intrinsic worth of companies.

The researchers say that projecting this trend may be helpful in predicting when growth will become unsustainable, and the market will crash.

They applied their model to the Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks the combined worth of all companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the world’s second largest.

The index gained 50 per cent in just four months earlier this year.

It was in July that the team predicted that the index would start to fall sharply by August 10, and the index duly began to slide on August 4, falling almost 20 per cent in the subsequent two weeks.

The researchers, however, warn that anyone hoping to exploit the model for profit should think twice.

“If enough investors take action based on our predictions, the evolution of prices will probably be affected,” New Scientist magazine quoted Zhou as saying. (ANI)

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Girls’ fear of spiders may be genetic

August 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Aug 28 (ANI): Even the sight of spiders and snakes makes some people yell and run – and women are more likely to get scared than men. Now, a new study has shown that females are genetically predisposed to fear creepy-crawlies and dangerous animals.

During the study, scientists found that baby girls only 11 months old rapidly start to associate pictures of spiders with fear. However, baby boys remain blithely indifferent to this connection.

In an initial training phase, David Rakison, a developmental psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, showed 10 baby girls and boys a picture of a spider together with a fearful face.

In the following test phase, he let them watch the image of a spider paired with a happy face, and the image of a flower paired with a fearful face.

Despite the spider’s happy companion, the girls looked significantly longer at it than at the flower. The researchers took this to mean that the girls expected spiders to be linked with fear. The boys looked for an equal time at both images.

With a different group of babies, Rakison first showed a spider with a happy face, and a flower with a fearful face. Now the girls too looked at both images for the same length of time – implying that they did not have an inborn fear of spiders.

The results suggest that girls are more inclined than boys to learn to fear dangerous animals.

On the other hand, modern phobias such as fear of flying or injections show no sex difference, Rakison said.

He attributes the difference to behavioral differences between men and women among our hunter-gatherer ancestors. An aversion to spiders may help women avoid dangerous animals, but in men evolution seems to have favoured more risk-taking behaviour for successful hunting.

It makes evolutionary sense to acquire spider fear at a certain age, rather than to be born with it, Rakison said.

“There is little reason for an infant to fear an object unless it can respond to it, for example by crawling away,” New Scientist quoted him as saying.

The study has been published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. (ANI)

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Photo exhibition showcasing 128-year-old past of heritage railway in Darjeeling

August 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Siliguri, Aug 26 (ANI): To create awareness regarding the history and evolution of the heritage railway especially amongst schoolchildren, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) in collaboration with the Siliguri Science Centre has organised a week-long photo exhibition showcasing its glorious past of 128 years, in Siliguri.

The exhibition, which will conclude on August 30, depicts the evolution of the DHR from its inception to the modern times.

The DHR is an important landmark on the Indian tourism map especially after UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 1999.

The DHR’s 82 kilometres of journey from Siliguri junction to Darjeeling is an enchanting journey offering a majestic view of the Darjeeling Himalayas.

The organisers believe that the exhibition will make young generation aware of the history of the DHR, an important part of their heritage.

“We have tried to display through photographs, through charts and through maps, the evolution of the DHR and also the different milestones and important events of the DHR. For example, when the Tindharia workshop (the workshop that undertakes major servicing of steam locomotives and coaches of DHR) was formed, how the monsoon disaster took place, and even the cyclone AILA has been put in,” said Subrata Nath, Director, Darjeeling Himalayan Railways.

Children, from various schools of the region, are thronging the exhibition and have been enthusiastic about it.

“It is an awesome feeling, because I have never experienced such a thing .I came here and saw the railways and the natural beauty of Darjeeling Himalayas. It was a fantastic experience,” said Rahul Sharma, a student.

The DHR toy train was the brainchild of Franklin Prestage, an agent of the then Eastern Bengal Railway, who foresaw the utility of a rail link between the hills of Darjeeling and the plains.

It was started in 1896 by the then British Lieutenant Governor Ashley Eden, offering riders an opportunity to enjoy the majestic beauty of nature along the Darjeeling hills. At the beginning, this railway was named as the Darjeeling steam Tramway Co. Later when India gained independence in 1947, the railway was renamed as the DHR.

The DHR was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO on December 5 at its 23rd session. By Taruk Sarkar (ANI)

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Scientists propose new mechanism for dune formation on Saturn’s largest moon

August 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, August 26 (ANI): A new research paper has proposed a possible new mechanism for the development of very large linear dunes formed on the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.

The paper, authored by LSU (Louisiana State University) Department of Geography and Anthropology Chair Patrick Hesp and United States Geological Survey scientist David Rubin, is titled – “Multiple origins of linear dunes on Earth and Titan.”

The authors examined the linear – or longitudinal – dunes that stretch across the surface of China’s Qaidam Basin, finding them composed of sand and some salt and silt.

The latter two elements make the dunes cohesive or sticky.

According to the study, this leads to a complete change in dune form from transverse dunes to linear dunes, even though the wind speed and direction does not change.

Typically, transverse dunes are formed by winds from a narrow directional range while longitudinal or linear dunes are formed by winds from two obliquely opposing directions.

These findings offer an alternative interpretation of similar dunes found on Titan.

Hesp and Rubin suggest that if the giant linear dunes found on the surface of Titan are also formed from cohesive sediment, then they too could be formed by single-direction winds.

This is in sharp contrast to earlier studies, which assumed that the sediments were loose and interpreted the dune shape as evidence of winds coming from alternating directions.

The alternative hypothesis that Titan’s linear dunes are formed in cohesive sediment has significant implications for studies on Titan.

If the Hesp and Rubin alternative is correct, new hypotheses regarding the composition, origin, evolution, grain size, stickiness, quantity, global transport patterns and suitability for wind transport of Titan’s sediment; the velocities, directions and seasonal patterns of Titan’s winds; and overall surface wetness will all have to be completely reassessed. (ANI)

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