{"id":12189,"date":"2018-06-29t14:41:22","date_gmt":"2018-06-29t14:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpetrov.2create.studio\/planet\/wordpress\/bare-feet-and-machetes-when-the-jungle-is-your-laboratory\/"},"modified":"2018-06-29t14:41:22","modified_gmt":"2018-06-29t14:41:22","slug":"jungle-kalu-yala-institute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/jungle-kalu-yala-institute\/","title":{"rendered":"bare feet and machetes: when the jungle is your laboratory"},"content":{"rendered":"
by maddie burakoff<\/strong><\/p>\n the biology department of the kalu yala institute looks a little different from a traditional research lab. bare feet and gym shorts suffice instead of lab coats and goggles. rather than scalpels or x-acto knives, students pick up machetes to make their way through the brush and pluck up specimen samples. and, in place of a classic laboratory space filled with spotless counters and sanitized equipment, the \u201cclassroom\u201d consists of open-air wooden ranchos in the heart of panama\u2019s rainforest.<\/p>\n out here among the towering fronds and scurrying iguanas, selah phillips is taking advantage of one of the natural resources that abounds in the humid environment: algae. the 20-year-old plant enthusiast, on a semester abroad at kalu yala from millersville university in pennsylvania, has made it her mission to take the green filaments and turn it into green energy. by extracting oil from the organisms, which grow freely on the rocks in the nearby pacora and iguana rivers, she believes she can produce a source of biodiesel to serve as an alternative to polluting fossil fuels.<\/p>\n \u201con a global scale, research on biodiesel enables us to deindustrialize, decentralize, and bring more income back to the community,\u201d she says during a presentation for other kalu yala students. \u201cjust save our environment in the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n those at kalu yala have taken it upon themselves to create a fully sustainable eco-city that can serve as a model for a more environmentally friendly future. the city in the making also hosts an \u201cinstitute,\u201d which enrolls students \u2014 many of them on a semester abroad from colleges and universities \u2014 to work on projects from tiny house architecture to agroforestry. they\u2019re hoping to find solutions to the biggest environmental issues of our time, all in the span of 10 weeks.<\/p>\n phillips and her fellow \u201ckalu yalans,\u201d as they are fond of calling themselves, may miss out on some of the resources and credibility they\u2019d find at a more standard university. but the unique nature of the program gives them unprecedented independence and access to the riches of the surrounding environment, a wellspring of biodiversity that often goes ignored by international researchers and underutilized by a national government that is decreasing its spending on research and development.<\/p>\n this past spring semester, kalu yala\u2019s biology department consisted of three people: two students and program director ryan king, who serves as lecturer, lab adviser, mentor, and everything in between. all of them had come from u.s. universities. and, during their time in the jungle, all had created projects uniquely suited to the setting, which could have real implications for the future of sustainability.<\/p>\n if, that is, they can successfully bring their ideas with them in their return to the \u201creal world.\u201d<\/p>\n for phillips, the social media-savvy kalu yala had been on her online radar long before she ever decided to make the journey there herself. an earlier project to create sustainable ponds for growing tilapia had put the eco-city on her map as a place where innovative environmental work was happening. after following kalu yala\u2019s work for three or four years, phillips said she decided to head to the jungle to see it for herself.<\/p>\n the journey, she said, represented an opportunity to challenge herself and be out in the field without the regular guidelines of the university curriculum.<\/p>\n and the project she picked out put her adaptability to the test. though the algae was free for the taking, the makeshift jungle \u201claboratory\u201d lacked a lot of the supplies and equipment she took for granted at her university. so, with king\u2019s help, phillips found ways to make do with what she could find.<\/p>\n to get the coveted vegetable oil out of the algae for biodiesel, king said he and phillips needed a chemical solvent to break the oil from the cells it was locked inside. the two decided to start with methyl alcohol, already available as a waste product from the onsite rum distillery, and combine it with homemade chloroform.<\/p>\n \u201cthat was really awesome and really exciting because as far as research that we know of, it’s the first time using house-made solvents \u2014 like solvents that we actually made in house, on our own \u2014 to produce biodiesel,\u201d phillips said<\/p>\nfueling the future<\/h2>\n