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"At first glance, the winning images from the 2010 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition--put on by the camera company's U.S. arm--look like distant worlds or psychedelic moon landscapes. But take a (much) closer look, and you'll see the images are of life science specimens that surround us every day: seeds, insects, plants, animals, and eyes... "

Most public schools are traditionally run by principals and administrators, who defer to policies dictated by the state. But a group of 60 schools across the country is subverting the top-down system, putting teachers in full control of running their schools. It's called the Teacher Powered Schools initiative, led by Education Evolving, and the goal is to seed a movement that will inspire other teachers in schools across the country to realize their potential as leaders. To that end, Education Evolving released a study [PDF]  in partnership with Center for Teaching Quality, which indicates that 91 percent of Americans believe teachers should have greater influence over decisions that affect student learning. What's more, 81 percent of Americans indicate they trust teachers to make "schools run better." In this model of teacher-run schools, teams of teachers "work collaboratively as leaders and partners to make professional decisions over the areas that matter most for their students, including selection of colleagues, evaluation, budget and resources, curriculum and school-level policymaking.""

Google Ideas explores how technology can enable people to confront threats in the face of conflict, instability and repression. We connect users, experts and engineers to conduct research and seed new technology-driven initiatives.