NASSMC Member Coalitions Featured Prominently in September NAS and CBC Events

Convocation on Rising Above the Gathering Storm Features Presentations by Alabama and Florida Coalitions, September 28
Alabama Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education Coalition (AMSTEC) Interim Executive Director Brenda Terry and Florida Coalition for Science Literacy (CIMS) Director Gerry Meisels presented at and participated in the convocation. Alabama's presentation is available here; Florida's presentation is available here.

The National Academies hosted the Convocation- to follow up on the release of Rising Above the Gathering Storm - on September 28th in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the Convocation was to convene leadership of industry, government, research, and education community from all 50 states and the federal government; share knowledge and encourage leadership of initiatives at the state and local level to strengthen U.S. competitiveness; and discuss current national proposals to respond to the nation's competitiveness challenge and their implications for states, localities, and regions.   

For more information, please visit www.nationalacademies.org/gatheringstorm.

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AMSTEC Participates in Stakeholder Speak Out at 2006 Congressional Black Caucus Education Braintrust, September 8
Charles Nash of the Alabama Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education Coalition (AMSTEC) participated in the annual Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Education Braintrust Symposium was held on September 8 in Washington, D.C.  The Symposium, entitled Education Partners Ensuring America's Competitiveness, was a complementary component of the CBC's Annual Legislative Conference, whose theme was Changing Course, Confronting Crisis, Continuing the Legacy. Nash presented with speakers from NASA, NAS, and NSF.

Taking Science to School: NRC Report Suggests Changes to K-8 Science Instruction to Boost Student Performance

Improving science education in kindergarten through eight grade will require major changes in how science is taught in America's classrooms, as well as shifts in commonly held views of what young children know and how they learn, says a new report entitled Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8, from the National Research Council (NRC), part of the National Academies.

According to the report, compiled by a 14-member committee of experts in education and learning, today's standards are too broad and result in superficial coverage of science that fails to link concepts or develop them over successive grades. It also says teachers need more opportunities to learn how to teach science as an integrated whole and to diverse student populations. Teacher preparation and professional development should focus on boosting teachers' knowledge of science, how students learn the subject, and methods and technologies that aid in science learning for all, the report says.

The committee found the commonly held view that young children are simplistic thinkers is outmoded. Instead, studies show that children think in surprisingly sophisticated ways. All children, the report says, have basic reasoning skills, personal knowledge of the natural world and curiosity that teachers can build on to achieve proficiency in science.

The report also urges education leaders, policymakers, researchers, and school administrators to tackle gaps in science achievement among different student groups, including those between white students and non-Asian minority students and between economically advantaged and disadvantaged students.

The study was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the Merck Institute for Science Education.

More information is available at www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=108037

AMATYC Releases Report: Beyond Crossroads: Implementing Mathematics Standards in the First Two Years of College

With the Beyond Crossroads: Implementing Mathematics Standrds in the First Two Years of College report, AMATYC reaffirms and builds upon the principles and standards set forth in its first standards document published in 1995. The report advocates for informed decision-making and outlines expectations, responsibilities, recommendations, and action items for students, faculty, departments, and institutions. Beyond Crossroads is a call for continuous improvement in content, pedagogy, and professionalism.

The foundation of all the standards presented in Beyond Crossroads are:

• Assessment -The assessment of student learning in mathematics should be a fundamental tool for the improvement of instruction and student learning.
• Broadening - Mathematics courses and programs in the first two years of college should broaden students’ options in educational and career choices.
• Equity and Access - All students should have equitable access to high-quality, challenging, effective mathematics instruction and support services.
• Innovation - Mathematics programs should be thoughtfully constructed to approach content and instruction with appropriate use of traditional and innovative methods.
• Inquiry - Effective mathematics instruction should require students to be active participants.
• Quantitiative Literacy - Quantitative literacy should be integrated throughout the mathematics program and the college curricula.
• Relevance - The mathematics that students study should be meaningful and foster their appreciation of the discipline.
• Research into Practice - The practice of mathematics teaching should be guided by research on teaching and learning.
• Technology - Technology should be integral to the teaching and learning of mathematics.

Recent past NASSMC President William G. Steenken serves as a member of the National Advisory Committee for Beyond Crossroads and serves on the Executive Board of the Ohio Mathematics and Science Coalition.

Download the report at www.bc.amatyc.org/.

U. S. Chamber of Commerce Education and Workforce Summit, October 4-6

NASSMC President Francis Eberle, Executive Director of the Maine Mathematics and Science Association, and NASSMC Executive Director Jim McMurtray were in Dallas October 4-6 to participate in the U. S. Chamber of Commerce Education and Workforce Summit. Representatives from the Alabama Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education Coalition, the Arizona Business and Education Coalition, and the Texas Business and Education Coalition were also in attendance.

The summit, entitled Programs and Policies that Keep America Competitive had an expanded agenda designed to reflect the U.S. Chamber's new education and workforce initiative. The Summit commenced on October 4th with a full day dedicated to policy. Featured speakers and presentations included:

• Keynote address by the Honorable Margaret Spellings, U.S. Secretary of Education
• Charles Miller, Chair, Commission on the Future of Higher Education
• Ed Rust, Chairman and CEO, State Farm Insurance
• Former Governor of North Carolina James B. Hunt, Jr.
• Russ Whitehurst, Director, Institute for Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
• Emily Stover DeRocco, Assistant Secretary, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor
• Bob Wise, Former Governor, West Virginia, and President, Alliance for Excellent Education
• Alex Nock, Director, Commission on No Child Left Behind
• Dan Katzir, Managing Director, The Broad Foundation
• Rick Hess, Resident Scholar and Director of Education Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute

Learn more and view the entire agenda at www.uschamber.com/icw/default

The Biotechnology Institute Editorial Featured in Washington Post's Education Issue: Waging War on Evolution

The October 1 issue of the Washington Post features an editorial from Paul Hanle, President of The Biotechnology Institute, on the importance of teaching evolution in the nation's science classtrooms.

Hanle writes that over past year alone, efforts to incorporate creationist language or undermine evolution in science classrooms at public schools have emerged in at least 15 states, according to the National Center for Science Education. And an independent education foundation has concluded that science-teaching standards in 10 states fail to address evolution in a scientifically sound way. Through changes in standards and curriculum, these efforts urge students to doubt evolution — the cornerstone principle of biology, one on which there is no serious scientific debate. This war could decimate the development of U.S. scientific talent and erode whatever competitive advantage the United States enjoys in the technology-based global economy.

To read the editorial in its entirety, click here.

A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of Higher Education

To help keep America competitive and provide students and families with more information and more affordable access to higher education, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced her plans to improve the U.S. higher education system, based on the recommendations in the final report of her Commission on the Future of Higher Education: A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of Higher Education.

The Secretary's proposal:

• Strengthen K-12 preparation and align high school standards with college expectations.
• Work with Congress to expand the successful principles of the No Child Left Behind Act to high schools.
• Redesign the 12th-grade NAEP test to provide state-level estimates of college and workforce readiness.
• Raise awareness and mobilize leadership to address the issue of adult literacy as a barrier to national competitiveness and individual opportunity.
• Develop a federal research agenda for adult literacy to identify strategies, models and programs that work.

The Commission on the Future of Higher Education was created in September 2005 to develop a comprehensive strategy for postsecondary education that would better serve Americans and address the nation's economic and workforce needs.

More information is available at www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2006/09/09262006.html

Resources, Reports & Events

Measuring Up 2006: The National Report Card on Higher Education Released
Measuring Up 2006, released September 7, consists of the national report card for higher education and fifty state report cards. Its purpose is to provide the public and policymakers with information to assess and improve postsecondary education in each state. Measuring Up 2006 is the fourth in a series of biennial report cards.

Information available online provides state leaders, policymakers, researchers and others with access to the national report card as well as access to all fifty state report cards. In addition, the site can compare any state with the best-performing states in each performance category, compare indicator scores and state grades for any performance category, obtain source and technical information for indicators and weights, and allow visitors to download the reports. The Measuring Up Web site has the capacity to view previous report cards from 2000, 2002, and 2004.

The report is available at measuringup.highereducation.org/

NSF Releases Report: US Doctorates in the 20th Century
The just-released NSF report U.S. Doctorates in the 20th Century reveals many factors about who is educated and where. It also describes the complex changes taking place in the pursuit of doctoral degrees, many in new interdisciplinary fields. Major finding include:

• Foreign nationals held less than 10 percent of all doctorates before 1960 but received more than a third of all science and engineering (S&E) doctorates by 1999, and 17 percent of non-S&E doctorates.
• Two-year colleges vastly increased their role in educating those who go on to pursue a Ph.D. In the century's final 5 years, 1995-1999, one-fifth of all American Indians/Alaska Natives who received doctorates attended two-year colleges. One-sixth of all Hispanic Ph.D. recipients also reported having attended two-year colleges.
• From 1995-1999, almost a third of African-American Ph.D. recipients reported receiving an undergraduate degree from a Historically Black College or University (HBCU).

View the full report at www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf06319/.

NCES Report: Projections of Education Statistics to 2015
This publication provides projections for key education statistics. It includes statistics on enrollment, graduates, teachers, and expenditures in elementary and secondary schools, and enrollment, earned degrees conferred, and current-fund expenditures of degree-granting institutions. For the Nation, the tables, figures, and text contain data on enrollment, teachers, graduates, and expenditures for the past 14 years and projections to the year 2015. For the 50 States and the District of Columbia, the tables, figures, and text contain data on projections of public elementary and secondary enrollment and public high school graduates to the year 2015. In addition, the report includes a methodology section describing models and assumptions used to develop national and state-level projections. The report is available at nces.ed.gov/

Education Week Special Report: Leading for Learning 2006
The No Child Left Behind Act has created an immense leadership challenge for states, requiring them to help a rapidly growing number of low-performing schools and districts without additional aid to do so, according to a special report from Education Week, which also highlights trends in state approaches to confront this growing challenge.

The report, Leading for Learning 2006, is supported by the Wallace Foundation and finds that 8,446 U.S. schools and 1,624 districts were listed as "in need of improvement" for the 2005-2006 school year. The full report is included in Education Week's September 13 issue and is available online at www.edweek.org/wallace

STEM Workforce Data Reports from the Commission of Professionals in Science and Technology
The Commission of Professionals in Science and Technology has released Four Decades of STEM Degrees, 1966-2004: "The Devil is in the Details." Findings are based on data from the National Science Foundation's WebCASPAR Database. Among other findings, foreign nationals, women, and minorities earned a significantly higher number of STEM field degrees in 2004 than in 1966, with the percentage for women nearly doubling.

The report is available at www.cpst.org/

Public Agenda's Reality Check 2006: Issue No. 4: The Insiders
Public Agenda released new research which showed major disconnects between the priorities of national policy-makers versus those of local school leaders on issues like teacher quality, standards and the need to ramp up science and math coursework. Public Agenda found that even when they see the same problems, the two groups seem to strive for different solutions.

While 60% of principals say they are "very satisfied" with the teachers in their school and most superintendents (56%) believe the quality of new teachers is improving, federal officials enforcing No Child Left Behind said in Summer 2006 that not a single state in the nation has yet met its benchmarks for insuring more qualified teachers. And while just more than half of the nation's superintendents consider local schools to be "excellent" and relatively few (23%) say low standards are a serious problem where they work, the DOE says only 10 states have testing systems that meet its standards. Ironically, healthy majorities of superintendents (64%) and principals (67%) say one of the best ways to help them be better school leaders would be to reduce red tape and bureaucracy associated with school mandates like No Child Left Behind.

The report is available at:
publicagenda.org/specials/realitycheck06/realitycheck06_main.htm

NSRC National Symposium on Science Education for Key Leaders, October 29-31
The National Science Resources Center (NSRC) will be hosting Changing the Course of Science Education: A Symposium for Key Stakeholders in America's Future, a symposium designed for key leaders from business, foundations, scholastic and academic institutions, government agencies, and other organizations that have a stake in improving science education.

This Symposium will focus on ways of leveraging the involvement of myriad organizations in the education of our nation’s youth. Symposium participants are expected to:

• Develop a shared vision for effective science learning and teaching through hands-on, inquiry-based science lessons and visits to virtual classrooms
• Learn about research and best practices that support the vision, including research on how students learn and case studies of effective partnerships between business and K–12 school districts
• Explore ways in which each organization can become an active leader in championing science education reform
• Learn how to form effective partnerships for sustaining systemic K–12 science education reform

The symposium will be held at The Keck Center of The National Academies. For more inforrmation visit www.nsrconline.org.

Replicas of the Voyage Scale Model Solar System on the National Mall in Washington, DC, are Now Available to Communities
In October 2001, the Voyage scale model of the Solar System was permanently installed on the National Mall in Washington, DC, between the U.S. Capitol Building and the Washington Monument. The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education is now making replicas of the exhibition available for permanent installation in communities across the U.S. and internationally, along with extensive resources and community-wide programming. The Voyage program was designed to take an entire community to the frontiers of exploration. For more information visit www.voyagesolarsystem.org or contact Stacy Hamel at 202-689-1295, shamel@usra.edu.

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2007 Space Day Design Challenges Now Available
Can life be sustained on the moon? Is there a solar system beyond our own? There are countless unanswered questions about space and many scientists and engineers working to solve the mysteries. The Space Day Design Challenges, a national competition sponsored by Lockheed Martin, taps the creativity and imagination of some of our youngest would-be space pioneers — students. 50 Years in Space … And Still Havin’ A Blast! is the theme of Design Challenges 2007.

The Challenges, produced by Challenger Center for Space Science Education, are available at www.spaceday.org/

Einstein Fellowship Seeks Candidates for 2007-2008 School Year - Application Period Now Open!

The Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship is a paid fellowship for K-12 math, science, and technology teachers. Einstein Fellows spend a school year in Washington, DC serving in a federal agency or on Capitol Hill. To be considered for an Einstein Fellowship, apply and submit three letters of recommendation online by January 8, 2007.

The goal of the Einstein Fellows program is to provide an opportunity for teachers to inform national policy and improve communication between the K-12 STEM education community and national leaders. Selection is based on excellence in K-12 mathematics, science, or technology teaching; demonstrated leadership; an understanding of national, state, and local education policy; and communication and interpersonal skills. The Fellowship program was created in 1990 with support from the MacArthur Foundation. Congress formalized the program in 1994 by passing the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Act.

Apply online at applicationlink.labworks.org/applicationlink/default.htm

For more information about the Einstein Fellows program visit www.trianglecoalition.org/ein.htm or contact Andrea Bodmann at bodmanna@triangle-coalition.org.

Barbarian Science

NASSMC has received a limited quantity of Executive Director Jim McMurtray 1999 book, Barbarian Science. These books will be sold with 100% of the proceeds going to NASSMC's general fund. The $20 cost includes shipping. Published by Town Square Books (the Jackson State University Press), Barbarian Science was originally written for marketing to universities offering courses in the literature of science through the English Departments. It later reached a secondary audience in colleges of education.

This short book (100 pages) is about science literacy in America and the need to make science accessible to the general population. The current national attention toward making science available to a larger population has made the book more timely now than when it was written. Barbarian Science has been used in universities across the country and is still sold in college book stores here and there.

To order Barbarian Science, please send your check, payable to NASSMC, at $20 per copy, to Deborah Jones, National Alliance of State Science and Mathematics Coalitions, 1840 Wilson Blvd., Suite 200, Arlington, VA 22201-3000.

Getting to Know the Periodic Table of Elements: Scandium, Titanium, Vanadium

SCANDIUM
The name is derived from the Latin Scandia: Scandinavia) The element was discovered in 1878 in the minerals euxenite and gadolinite, which had not yet been found anywhere except in Scandinavia. Scandium is a silver-white metal which develops a slightly yellowish or pinkish cast upon exposure to air. A relatively soft element, scandium resembles yttrium and the rare-earth metals more than it resembles aluminum or titanium. It is classified as a transition metal (both ductile and malleable and able to conduct electricity and heat).

Atomic Number: 21
Atomic Symbol: Sc
Atomic Weight: ~44.9

TITANIUM
The name is derived from the Latin. titanos, the first sons of the Earth. First discovered by in 1791 and named in 1795. Impure titanium was prepared in 1887; however, the pure metal (99.9%) was not made until 1910 when TiCl4 was heated with sodium in a steel bomb.

Titanium is present in meteorites and the sun. Titanium oxide bands are prominent in the spectra of M-type stars. The element is the ninth most abundant in the crust of the earth. Titanium is almost always present in igneous rocks and in the sediments derived from them. Titanium, when pure, is a lustrous, white metal. It has a low density, good strength, is easily fabricated, and has excellent corrosion resistance. It is ductile only when it is free of oxygen. The metal, which burns in air, is the only element that burns in nitrogen. It is classified as a transition metal (both ductile and malleable and able to conduct electricity and heat).

Atomic Number: 22
Atomic Symbol: Ti
Atomic Weight: ~47.9

VANADIUM
The name is derived from the Scandinavian goddess, Vanadis, because of its beautiful multicolored compounds. Vanadium was first discovered in 1801. Unfortunately, another chemist incorrectly declared that the new element was only impure chromium. The element was rediscovered in 1830. It was isolated in nearly pure form in 1867.

Pure vanadium is a bright white metal, and is soft and ductile. It has good corrosion resistance to alkalis, sulfuric and hydrochloric acid, and salt water, but the metal oxidizes readily above 660oC. The metal has good structural strength and a low fission neutron cross section, making it useful in nuclear applications. It is classified as a transition metal (both ductile and malleable and able to conduct electricity and heat).

Atomic Number: 23
Atomic Symbol: V
Atomic Weight: ~50.9

[Sources for Getting to Know the Periodic Table of Elements: Chemical Elements.com, A Periodic Table of the Elements at Los Alamos National Laboratory, The Pictorial Periodic Table.]

Of Interest...

NASA's Mars rover Opportunity reached the rim of "Victoria Crater" in Mars' Meridiani Planum region with a 26-meter (85-foot) drive during the rover's 951st Martian day, or sol (Sept. 26, 2006). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

+ NASA's Mars Rover and Orbiter Team examines Victoria Crater: NASA's long-lived robotic rover Opportunity is beginning to explore layered rocks in cliffs ringing the massive Victoria crater on Mars. While Opportunity spent its first week at the crater, NASA's newest eye in the Martian sky photographed the rover and its surroundings from above. The level of detail in the photo from the high-resolution camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will help guide the rover's exploration of Victoria.

+ El Nino forms, throttling hurricane formation: El Nino conditions have developed in the tropical Pacific and are likely to continue into early 2007, scientists announced yesterday. El Nino is marked by warmer water in the Pacific off the coast of South America. It alters weather patterns in the United States and throttles hurricane formation in the Atlantic by pumping energy high into the atmosphere and fueling wind currents that cross the Americas and shear the tops off some Atlantic storms before they can develop into hurricanes.

+ Microscopic motor runs on microbes: Scientists have yoked bacteria to power rotary motors, the first microscopic mechanical devices to successfully incorporate living microbes together with inorganic parts. "In far future plans, we would like to make micro-robots driven by biological motors," researcher Yuichi Hiratsuka, a nanobiotechnologist now at the University of Tokyo, told LiveScience. Hiratsuka, while at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology near Tokyo, and his colleagues experimented with one of the most rapid crawling bacteria, Mycoplasma mobile.

+ Puffed-up planet puzzles astronomers: An amazingly swollen planet has been spotted circling a star in the constellation Lacerta. It is the second of its kind, which makes astronomers suspect these inexplicably puffed-up worlds are actually common. The average density of the new planet is about a quarter that of water, making it less dense than a wine cork. The team who discovered it, led by Gáspár Bakos from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, reported the discovery at a press conference in Washington DC.

+ Cartographical map projections: There is an endless variety of geographical maps for every kind of purpose. When looking at two different world maps one can wonder why the differences: do we draw the world as a rectangle, or an oval? Shouldn't it be a circle? Should grid lines be parallel, straight or curved? Does South America's "tail" bend eastwards or westwards? What's the "right" way (or, more properly, is there one?) to draw our unique planet? One important concern of cartography is solving how to project, i.e. transform or map points from an almost spherical lump of rock (our Earth) onto either flat sheets of paper or not-so flat phosphorus-coated glass. Here are informally described important cartographic concepts, how maps are drawn and why there are so many different kinds of projections for world maps.

Snake-arm robots.

+ Snake-arm robots slither forward: Snake-arm robots, as they are known, are lightweight, flexible manipulator arms. They look like a spinal column, made of lots of individual vertebrae, and can contort to any desired shape. One day it is hoped that their slender tentacles could be used to control intricate operations deep within the recesses of the human brain.

+ Researchers link ice-age climate-change records to ocean salinity: Sudden decreases in temperature over Greenland and tropical rainfall patterns during the last Ice Age have been linked for the first time to rapid changes in the salinity of the north Atlantic Ocean, according to research published Oct. 5, 2006, in the journal Nature. The results provide further evidence that ocean circulation and chemistry respond to changes in climate. Using chemical traces in fossil shells of microscopic planktonic life forms, called formanifera, in deep-sea sediment cores, scientists reconstructed a 45,000- to 60,000-year-old record of ocean temperature and salinity. They compared their results to the record of abrupt climate change recorded in ice cores from Greenland. They found the Atlantic got saltier during cold periods, and fresher during warm intervals.

+ Mega-mountains spurred explosive evolution: A continental crash that raised one of the biggest mountain chains in the Earth's history may be responsible for the explosive diversification of animals more than 500 million years ago. Sediments washed from the mountains – dubbed the Transgondwanan Supermountain – added vital nutrients to the ocean, opening new evolutionary opportunities, says Rick Squire, now at Monash University in Clayton, Victoria, Australia. The rapid proliferation of animals that occurred at that time is one of evolution's biggest enigmas. Life had remained simple and largely single-celled for nearly three billion years, until the multi-celled Ediacara fauna evolved, 575 million years ago.

+ Genome info from "plant destroyers" could save trees, beans and chocolate: An international team of scientists has published the first two genome sequences from a destructive group of plant pathogens called Phytophthora--a name that literally means "plant destroyer." The more than 80 species of fungus-like Phytophthora (pronounced "fy-TOFF-thor-uh") attack a broad range of plants and together cost the agriculture, forestry and nursery industries hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Even though Phytophthora are similar to fungi, most fungicides are ineffective at controlling them. The information gained from studying the genomic sequences of P. ramorum and P. sojae will help scientists devise strategies to combat not only these two species, but also other disease-causing Phytophthora.

+ General relativity passes cosmic test: Einstein's general theory of relativity has passed its toughest test yet. By looking at a pair of neutron stars — the densest objects in the Universe after black holes — scientists have made the most accurate measurement yet of how strong gravitational fields bend radio waves. This reduces the room for theories that predict Einstein's equations will fail near very dense masses.

Among three designs for floating giant wind turbines in the deep ocean, MIT research is focusing on the tension leg platform (center), a system that oil companies use for deep-water rigs. Credit: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Click image for larger version)

+ Floating ocean windmills designed to generate more power: Windmills that would float hundreds of miles out at sea could one day help satisfy our energy needs without being eyesores from land, scientists said today. Offshore wind turbines are not new, but they typically stand on towers that have to be driven deep into the ocean floor. This arrangement only works in water depths of about 50 feet or less—close enough to shore that they are still visible.

+ Planet or failed star? One of smallest stellar companions seen by Hubble: Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have photographed one of the smallest objects ever seen around a normal star beyond our Sun. Weighing in at 12 times the mass of Jupiter, the object is small enough to be a planet. The riddle is that it is also large enough to be a brown dwarf, a failed star. The Hubble observation of the diminutive companion to the low-mass red dwarf star CHRX 73 is a dramatic reminder that astronomers do not have a consensus in deciding which objects orbiting other stars are truly planets - even though they have recently provided the definition of 'planet' for objects inside our Solar System.

+ Artificial humans gills inspired by diving beetles: By studying how beetles can trap air to keep from drowning, researchers suggest artificial gills that mimic such a trick could help people breathe underwater. Scientists in England investigated super-water-repellant surfaces. These possess infinitesimally tiny structures that rise like trees in a forest, on which water droplets rest. The structures trap air between the surface they jut up from and the water on top of them.