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Biosphere 2
Scientists Transform One-Time Habitat into Experiment Lab
 Listen to Joe Palca's report.
April 30, 2002 --
In September 1991, four men and four women left the natural Earth environment and entered an artificial one near Tucson, Ariz. The scientists would be sealed for two years in Biosphere 2 -- a glass and steel facility covering more than 3.5 acres -- for an experiment that would test whether humans could live in a closed ecological system.
But the project, funded by Texas billionaire Ed Bass, had an image problem from the very beginning. The first Biospherians made it two years -- barely. They had trouble growing enough food, and their oxygen started mysteriously disappearing. The second crew lasted only six months, until it was forced to leave when a potentially toxic gas started building up inside.
Despite those failures, a few researchers are convinced that Biosphere 2 can become a unique tool for studying the future of this planet. As NPR's Joe Palca reports on Morning Edition, Biosphere 2 is no longer a habitat. The giant terrarium is now a unique research center where scientists can study the climates of nine complex ecosystems. The "biomes," as they're called, include everything from a humid rainforest and a bone-dry desert to a grassy savannah.
In 1995, Columbia University scientists convinced the administration to manage Biosphere 2. The researchers said it presented an extraordinary opportunity to understand a large-scale environment.
For example, NASA's Larry Blivin is trying to understand what happens to the ocean's ability to take up carbon dioxide when it rains. A heavy shower falls from sprinklers high above the ocean biome. Biosphere 2's "ocean" is actually 700,000 gallons of seawater in a tank the size of an Olympic swimming pool. Blivin says making the accurate measurements he needs is much easier in an indoor facility than on the open ocean.
But critics question whether the answers that come from experiments inside Biosphere 2 will really apply to "Biosphere 1" -- the planet Earth. For example, when it rains inside Biosphere 2, the rain falls straight down. There's no wind driving the rain and whipping up the seas.
Columbia University's David Ho, the rain experiment's lead investigator, says though Biosphere 2 is not the real world, it is a solid training ground. "In order to convince people that what we have here can be extrapolated to the real world, we will have to go out there and do an experiment," he says. "But things that we've learned here will help us, because when we go out to the real world, we'll know what to look for."
Plant biologist Joe Berry of Stanford University has been coming to Biosphere 2 on a regular basis for five years. He's been trying to understand how rainforests respond to changes in Earth's climate. In a real rainforest, he says, researchers don't have easy access to the top of the trees' canopy. In Biosphere 2, they can easily climb to the roof and perch above the trees to make measurements.
Experiments like Ho's and Berry's cost money, and that's the other point critics of Biosphere 2 raise when they question the place's value to science. It costs the facility $750,000 a year just for electricity. Critics say there's no guarantee that the experiments' scientific results will ultimately justify the cost. And the revenue from the approximately 200,000 tourists who visit each year is not nearly enough to run the place.
Columbia University and Biosphere 2 owner Ed Bass are covering the costs of running the facility. But so far, only one outside group -- a private foundation -- is supporting research here. The U.S. Department of Energy may provide support, but it hasn't yet.
Biosphere 2 director Berry Osmond knows he's facing a deadline, and says he must convince scientists to visit Biosphere 2 to demonstrate its potential. Columbia University has only agreed to manage the facility until 2010. If researchers fail to convince the larger science community that Biosphere 2 is a valuable place for new and innovative research, the super-sized greenhouse may someday be known simply as an Arizona tourist attraction with a peculiar past.
Other Resources
• View a map of Biosphere 2 and take a virtual tour of its mini-ecosystems at Columbia Univeristy's official Biosphere 2 Center Web site.
• Plan a visit to the Biosphere 2 Center.
• Physical, biological and social scientists at the Columbia Earth Institute conduct research on Earth's complex systems.
• Encyclopedia.com offers links to scientific journals that cover the Biosphere 2 Center.
• 21stC, which features articles about Columbia University research, has a series of articles on Biosphere 2.
• Some of the original Biosphere 2 inhabitants have started Paragon Space Development Program, a provider of aerospace engineering services.
• Search for more information on earth sciences through dmoz.org.
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