Biosphere2
Our second adventure in Tucson was a visit to the Biosphere2, thirty miles north of the city. It was opened in 1990 as a closed environment to study the earth (Biosphere1). It's really interesting that it is a privately funded facility; major owner of the sponsoring organization is Edward Bass of Texas oil money. In the picture, the round structures are living areas, library, office, kitchen, lab. The glassed-in building contains the 5 biomes (self-sustaining community of living organisms)...rainforest, desert, savanna, marsh, ocean. Originally they had a shopping list of 3000 species of living organisms...from snakes to goats! There were 2 separate studies with people living in the closed environment...sealed in! It didn't work...oxygen built up and they really did not take into consideration how people would get along in this closed environment. It was supposed to also contribute to NASA studies of people interractions. It's seems hard to find info on this...but some of the studies are on this website. Biosphere2 is in the middle of the desert and is currently not being used for any studies...just waiting for the next proposal. It is considered to be the 10th engineering marvel of the world. Don't know what the other 9 are but I think Hoover Dam is in there somewhere.
