Greetings from what is somehow december already! Dinalab has been hanging in there, and even doing a couple socially distant open labs helping people nearby with projects and consulting virtually with people and schools :)
Pipeline Road Repair Fundraiser
Our biggest news right now, is after a year and a half of rogue repairs by amazing junglely volunteers, we finally put together a fundraiser to really fix the road up for good! Pipeline road is one of the most scientifically famous field sites in the world, but bureacracy and lack of funding have left its basic facilities to rot and become inacessible and dangerous. We are raising $12k for materials to rebuild the first 3 bridges with the amazing sustainable architects at Cresolus.
If you can share around this link for anyone who is interested in supporting our rogue repair job that would be fantastic! We are going to help make this incredible place a lot more accessible for both scientists and the public here in Panama!
www.panamabridges.org
The University of Wyoming is dedicating resources to helping out and edited together awesome videos about pipeline road's significance (with a lot of footage we collected during dinacon!), and they are also available in both english and spanish!
English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-vOTFa4oL8&feature=emb_title
Spanish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqlTwHfTmYE
Leaf Cutter Game
We have been working real hard all during the pandemic to help supply the Smithsonian's educational outreach division with online content since their normal, in person, workshops all had to get cancelled! Our latest game, "Leaf Cutter Empire" is a multifaceted, pixel-punk, open-source, interactive simulation of the entire life cycle of a leaf cutter ant. You start with a sky-high nuptial flight, rip off your wings, dig a new colony, then send your children to slice leaves to feed the fungus as your empire grows and grows (or likely you die off from parasites or lack of nutrition). El juego también está en español!
https://stri.si.edu/es/qdigital/imperio-de-las-arrieras
(there will be a cool video about bats coming out shortly too!)
Running Across the Americas
Our buddy, Mulget Amaru, the ethiopian ultra-runner who got stuck in gamboa this year during his journey from the bottom of south america to the top of alaska, is slowly making progress towards starting up again. We got his visa legality verified until Jan 31, and are working on getting visas for the next several countries (which is proving very tricky these days). Meanwhile we are trying to drum up a little local publicity and try to help him lead an Ocean to Ocean fundraiser run to support some local charities (and hopefully claim a world record for fastest Pacific to Atlantic run!). We just set up an instagram account where you can learn more about his past journey, and see what he gets up to when he gets going again!
https://www.instagram.com/amaruenamerica/
Please keep safe
Finally, there's maybe some cures on the horizon, but please, please, please, keep safe and be kind to each other. Especially if you are in the USA, we've already had so much family and friends get this horrible disease. Please help stop its spread. <3
Also the quicker the world can become safe, the quicker we can plan more adventures and expeditions together!
Lots of love from andy + dinalab!
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