From 2013.igem.org
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An iGEM team outreach goes to Amazon (we mean..inner
Amazon)
Our team went to an adventure in the rainforest; we went to
Manicoré, a municipality located in the south-east of the Brazilian
state of Amazonas. Its population is about 48,000 souls (2012) and
its area is 48,282 km². As all little towns in Amazon rainforest its
inhabitants are from small satellite communities. The town itself has
half of the population we mentioned before.
The origin of Manicoré name is from the river that has the
same name, one of the main affluent of Madeira River, itself one
of the most important arms of the might Amazon River. The name
Manicoré stands for an old Indian tribe that inhabited the region
before the colonization from Portuguese.
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Municipality of Manicoré
To get there we traveled about 400Km toward south and
spend twelve hours through a nice and bumpy highway: the river
Madeira. Yes, we’ve made by boat! These are the truly highways in
Amazon.
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Our route from Manaus to Manicoré: ~400km away
We joined another group also working at University of
Amazonas from Chemistry department, participating with then
in the event called: Unveiling the Forensic Science. Since our
Electrobacter-iGEM project is about (also) environment, as we are
proposing a system that reduces used frying oil spills, we fitted in
their Environment Forensic Science, cool isn’t? So, for first we’ve
made lots new friends from our own University!
And after see the stunning and beautiful Amazonian
landscapes and sunrise and sunset we finally reach the target! What
trip!
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iGEM team and Chemistry department working together and havin
photo together in Manicoré. Good times!
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We had a municipal high school to occupy and give three day
course with dynamics and practicum for the students from Manicoré
and surroundings. We have more than 300 students participating
in the whole thing counting the three days. We made some plays;
DNA extraction from onion, banana, pineapple; talked about the
used frying oil environmental issues and legislation about it; and
of course we talked a lot how SynBio can solve this in the future,
therefore we spread the news about iGEM, our participation in the
competition and how it works.
On the boat again….
In the last day we get together with about 40 students in a
two-deck regional boat and we talked about the importance of
the hydrological system in Amazon and other tropical rainforest
in the world (nothing better than do this inside a boat!), and our
dependency from these waters and ecosystems. We also stressed
the point about the use of used frying oil and the threats of it in the
way we humans are doing.
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It was a wonderful experience and made us feel more
Amazonians than ever. We learned a lot and now we can say in
a practical way that science and education can transform lives
and synthetic biology is applicable and feasible for real world
problems. Besides, people over there have so much to be heard
that we could improve our way of doing research, but this is other
text to be written. Thanks for all that participate on that educational
adventure...It’s time to get on the boat once again and come back
home…
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