The Smithsonian and Arizona State University have launched a novel video conferencing partnership that will virtually take the University’s life science students into Panama’s tropics.
Through the video-conferencing technology known as Vidyo, the students will be able to watch video feeds from remote areas in Panama to collect data and simultaneously communicate with researchers.
“Given the importance of tropical ecosystems to human well-being in the 21st century, we are pleased to partner with ASU to give North American university students direct access to scientists working in tropical forest and reef environments that inspire exploration,” said Eldredge Bermingham, Director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.
The ASU–STRI collaboration aims to promote educational opportunities globally and stimulate collaborative research and discovery in the areas of biofuels, social structure, sustainability and World Wide Web approaches to biodiversity and species discovery.
Barro Colorado - STRI research island
STRI Press Release.
The principal reason why modern people are inept in existing and participating in the larger symbiotic web of life on earth is due to their physical and spiritual disconnect from the non-human world.