So, SurvivalBlog had a link up to this photo essay on the weed-choked greenhouse that is the semi-defunct remains of Biosphere 2, best known as the setting for godawful Pauly Shore movies.
So that led me to the Wikipedia article on Biosphere 2, wherein I learned that if you seal a pack of Gaia-huggin' crystal worshippers with bogus scientific credentials in a big greenhouse and make them drink their own recycled pee for a few months, they start acting like a cross between the cast of Reservoir Dogs and the monkeys from the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
I think, based on what I've found on the web, that the whole experiment would have worked out best if Tina Turner showed up and threw some chainsaws and sledgehammers into the enclosure, 'cause that would have been frickin' awesome.
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Two men enter, one man leaves!
$cience marches on!
Shootin' Buddy
"$cience marches on!"
Maybe you missed the part where the closest thing they had to a scientist was a Harvard MBA. Which explains rather a lot, actually.
They send real scientists up to an actual working sealed biosphere that's circling the Earth all the time, you can even watch them on TeeVee, and they don't open the airlock doors in a huffy lover's snit.
That's $cience with a $.
Ah.
Stupid eyes, getting all out-of-focus.
Seriously, I had no idea how much weirdness was floating around the periphery of this. It's more "Heaven's Gate" than heavy research. I'm surprised they didn't find the bionauts one morning all laid out wearing track suits and Reeboks with rolls of quarters in their pockets...
Biosphere looks about as scientific as Mythbusters. The difference is that on Mythbusters, they're trying to make things blow up, and they're not afraid to have fun while they do it.
I'd rather be trapped in an elevator with the latter group.
I dunno. I remember will the start of the project and its intent was to figure out what was needed for star ships. if we leave this grubby ball as we are today we are looking at a century voayage at least. Now, how we can all stay sane in a tin can for 100 years is more of a question than whether we can be fed.
The space station is a wonderful piece of technology, but if not resupplied every few months, they to would leave this mortal coil.
I wonder if the Biosphere could be bought from the defunct corp. Now that could be cool.
I was a University of Arizona tuition-payer (I was going to say student, now I'm not so sure) during the "experiment".
There was no confusion among scientists as to the expected results. Soil decay is a very well known phenomenon, and was fully expected to flood the chamber with CO2. The results were unsurprising.
But that wasn't the "not science" part. They could have executed a legitimate series of experiments that attempted to find the correct ratio of living and dead plant matter in order to have CO2 concentration stability. But In The Name of Copernicus, Why Did They Put People Inside the Box?
Ultimately, the best result is that it proved definitively that dirty hippies suck the air out of a room.
Weren't they sneaking out the airlock for pizza or something?
Two hippies enter, one hippie leaves, unless we get lucky.
It actually is looking pretty damn good for being abandoned for so long.
If that's "bad" take another look at current Russia's abandoned military machine (that I think you linked to a while back).
What happened to Biosphere 1, or is that a story too gruesome to be told?
In the Biosphere, no-one cares if you scream.
"What happened to Biosphere 1, or is that a story too gruesome to be told?"
Algore says it'll be underwater soon. ;)
Best quote from the wiki article:
"...the experimenters learned that small, closed ecosystems are complex and vulnerable to unplanned events."
I could have told you that from reading Heinlein juveniles.
P.S. There's good, clear aerial photography of the site on Google Earth.
WV: "angition" - the technical term for a scientific hippie lover snit
It would make an awesome paintball arena.
Great. Now I have a We Don't Need Another Hero earworm running, with good odds it'll be up all day.
(The horror! The horror!...)
Biosphere 2 (AKA: BS squared) wasn't even a sphere...
Two men enter, one man leaves!
No, they were Gaia-huggin' crystal worshippers with bogus scientific credentials. No men.
Yeah; Jonestown didn't work out too well either, but they'll just keep trying it in different ways. -- Lyle
Master Blaster runs Biosphere
Embargo lifted.
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