The History of Biosphere 2 (Rewind)

Eight scientists sealed themselves inside a $150 million glass terrarium in the Arizona desert for two years, testing whether humans could survive on a self-sustaining mini-Earth—and whether the media would let them live it down.

Key takeaways

Biosphere 2 grew out of the Synergia Ranch commune in New Mexico, where John Allen and roughly 25 residents split time between experimental theater, farming, and ecological research, funded by Ed Bass, the eco-minded brother in a family of Texas oil billionaires.
The 8-story, three-football-field structure near Oracle, Arizona, packed a rainforest, savanna, fog desert, mangrove wetland, and a million-gallon ocean with a living coral reef into one sealed enclosure, stocked with 3,800 species collected from the Amazon to the Everglades.
The crew farmed a half-acre organic plot supplying 80% of their food, surviving mostly on vegetables, grains, and rationed animal products (five ounces of milk daily, a quarter pound of meat weekly), leading to a "healthy starvation diet" that left them thin with orange-tinted palms from eating so many carrots and yams.
Carbon dioxide management became the project's biggest technical crisis: overly rich compost soil caused bacteria to release excess CO2, oxygen levels dropped so low the crew's doctor couldn't do simple math, and liquid oxygen had to be pumped in twice, undercutting the "fully sealed" premise.
Credibility took repeated hits: a secretly installed CO2 scrubber (revealed by the Village Voice), a duffel bag of supplies Jane Poynter brought back after hand surgery, and a scientific advisory committee's 1992 report citing poorly defined goals and excessive secrecy; all fueling accusations that the project was more "eco-entertainment" than science.
After the first two-year mission ended, Ed Bass brought in Steve Bannon (later a Trump advisor) to restructure the company; he fired the original leadership and shut down the second mission after just six months before handing the facility to Columbia University and eventually the University of Arizona, where research continues today.

Notable moments

"None of the eight of us actually thought that, you know, by hook or crook, we could last there for two years," Mark Nelson admits.
On October 11, 1991, Jane Poynter caught her finger in a rice-threshing machine and had to briefly exit the airlock for surgery.
Guests at the launch party included Timothy Leary, Steve Guttenberg, and two cast members of Cheers, complete with fire jugglers and stilt dancers.
Critics dubbed the crew "recycled hippie actors," and Science magazine called the venture a "hybrid commercial tourist attraction and new age venture."
"We had 100 cycles of CO2 a year... I also like to think of Biosphere 2 as a time machine. It was like Earth, but kind of on steroids," Nelson explains.
Returning to a standing ovation on September 26, 1993, Nelson told the crowd, "They said it couldn't be done and here we are, healthy and happy."
Biosphere 2 drew 500,000 tourists during the experiment, making it Arizona's second most-visited attraction after the Grand Canyon.

Time saved: 33 minutes.

Back