Inside Biosphere 2: The World's Largest Earth Science Experiment
Craig goes to Biosphere 2--the largest closed system ever created--and learns about the science of recreating the Earth's ecosystems. How do we build a space colony? Can we re-create nature? Was Biosphere 2 a failure?
Special Thanks to:
John Adams and the University of Arizona
b2science.org/
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Music by:
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Jake Chudnow
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Image/Video Credits:
Biosphere footage courtesy of the University of Arizona
Biospherian photography by Peter Menzel, menzelphoto.photoshelter.com/g...
"Split into 2 factions - ..." Uhhh....so there was basically a Biospherian Civil War?!
I smell a netflix special
@@yudy92 I'd watch
The most ambitious crossover in human history
@@yudy92 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bio-Dome
@@yudy92 LOL they've already made a movie based on this its call Bio Dome
The engineering of the. "lung" just blew my mind...
I'm still baffled by it. I never imagined air pressures could be so powerful.
+jaziel tan Me too , that's just so amazing...
okay yeah but that thing cant't be fucking stable. relying on heuristic forces for something as mission critical? yeah dumb idea
I was thinking the same thing.
The "lung" is not that unique, it's called a gasometer and or gasholder and is a critical component of many storage system such as those used for biogas for biodigesters. The concept dates back to 1789 and was a critical component of the coal gas based town gas systems of the 19th century which provided our cities with lights. The fact that the engineering blew your mind is a sign of how much people have forgotten.
Finding things like this on KZhead is why I don’t own a tv anymore
That technology is dead now
You could watch this on a TV
What a loser
@@spilega4603 lol ur probably 10 so stfu
@@floraluvrr5661 And if i don't your gonna throw your pixel ass at me Waa Waa Waa "i'm scared"
Side note: It was later found that the hastily poured concrete was depleting the oxygen. It was just an engineering hindsight. The system works, it's the people that are broken.
Concrete breathes?
@@rollinthunder1000 Concrete can be very porous.
@@rollinthunder1000 Ask any basement owner.
@@rollinthunder1000 concrete slowly gives off CO2, which is part of the reaction of solidifying the concrete. The reactipn lasts for years and is a reason why concrete structures contribute to climate change.
You sound like a blizzard developer.
So, humans getting along is one of the big problems to be solved!
Biosphere 3
We are our own worst enemies
Every history book could have thought them that...
@Singularity nope, we never will as long as there is opposing views on things.
@Singularity prime example right now is democrats and republic party in the US. im not american and i can see already where different views get you label racist, homophobe and these people being called this arent any of the things thats being said. if we ( they ) can sort this out with a civil war i would be shocked and believe humanity has a chance. but the way the democrats are going with all their hate and violence it kinda proves my point right now and honestly that bs is really trivially when you look at the bigger picture
None of these experiments are failures. We learn something from every one of them.
yeah, how to waste a bunch of materials, electricity and time :p
Bonzo Bonzai attitudes like that, is part of the reason we don’t progress faster as a society
Larcoal: Amen! Science is a huge amount of failure, but without we would not have microwaves, GPS, ...
Lightbulbs were attempted thousands of different ways as far as im aware. Should he have stopped at the second fail and said meh we aren't meant to see in the dark without fire
Yes, and the biggest thing we learned at the Biosphere 2 project is that we are fools to ruin Biosphere One (i.e. The Earth) thinking we can just move off planet, because the truth is, we don't have the faintest clue how to replicate what our planet took millions of years to invent. And the truth is, further attempts will only result in more fantastically humiliating failures, so Patriarchy, bring it on! Just please, while you're at it, don't ruin it for the 99% of us who actually LIKE it here and think Earth is pretty cool. Thanks.
I went to this in 2017, a very fun time. The lung was probably the coolest thing I saw, as I cannot imagine the engineering required to make it function properly.
Right mad dope
i went to this place for a field trip in like 6th grade and it was one of the most memorable experiences ive ever had
Well what would you expect when Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin are involved?
+OwenBruch22 Nice
***** I'm glad someone got the reference.
+OwenBruch22 I'm so glad someone made the reference.
VIVA LOS BIODOME!
+OwenBruch22 I was literally expecting 99% biodome references here. Can't believe this is the only one tbh haha
After living in AZ 5 years, I finally went to this amazing science lab yesterday for the tour. I learned so much. If you ever visit Tucson, you should reward yourself with this incredible spectacle.
nahhhhh! THATS FOR WHTE PEOPLE ONLY.
"you can never recreate earth, it's too complicated."
Apparently they did.... looks like you haven't seen the video
GOD approves this message.
We can not even recreate soil, forget about recreating earth........ANd if we can, we kill eachother before we get there.....so it is not going to help either.......
And there are people still thinking that the earth and the Universe create it selves.
no, you cant recreate the earth it is just a project for space or maybe just the world went bad. that is not even 1% of the earth
Nice film guys. I heard about Biosphere 2 on a podcast recently. That was more about the origins of the group that founded it. I really enjoyed your mini docu. You guys make nice films and have a fairly non patronising presentation style. Thats rare with this type of thing. Thanks for that. 😉. So mid corona lockdown ive subed and looking forward to the next one. ✌🏼
I can remember seeing this on TV when they were going in there for the original experiment when I was a kid. The whole idea was so magical to me then, being locked in there and the different zones. I can remember dreaming about living in there.
So did I 👍
I thought it was soooo cool! Probably why I liked the movie Bio Dome with Pauly Shore.
It's called an escape fantasy - mine don't cost billions
I too would love to live in there. A very close second is to call the Mitchell Domes in Milwaukee home. Just would prefer to have them a bit more isolated like the Biosphere 2.
@William Santos Oh....What a disappointment.....
The fact that this is still in use is amazing. It’s not uncommon for large projects like this to fall into blight. Look at various abandoned Olympic facilities around the world. I wonder if the dome was donated to the university by its creators at some point?
Great video! A very interesting topic for sure. And great to hear what happened with the human experiments and the biospheres since they stopped
The fact that they split into two "factions" (to be dramtic) was actually a natural occurrence. They disagreed over getting outside assistance. They ultimately had to get outside assistance because they needed it. It wasn't really a big deal. They were not at war. What I would like know is what time felt like inside the biosphere with just 7 other people to interact with.
Exactly! They learned what took them to that point and should have learned how to adjust and move forward.
Are you sure there isn't more to the story? "Trump point man's bullying goes back to Biosphere: Steve Bannon represented financier Ed Bass in his attempt to wrest control of Biosphere 2 from its management team. Arizona Daily Star Updated Jan 23, 2021 The name Steve Bannon may not mean much to most people in Southern Arizona, but to those involved in Biosphere 2, it brings back memories of a troubled time. Bannon, as you may know, is the new head of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Bannon, previously an investment banker and movie maker, arrived there from Breitbart News, an online outlet founded by the late Andrew Breitbart that has become the Voice of Trump over the last year. Long before, though, Bannon was deeply involved in Biosphere 2. And, as in his more recent activities, Bannon apparently acted the bully around the enclosed mini-world near Oracle. On April 1, 1994, financier Ed Bass, after spilling tens of millions more dollars than expected on the project, moved to take it over from the original management team and partner John Allen. Bannon acted, essentially, as the heavy for Bass, Tucson attorney Larry Hecker recalled when I asked him Thursday. Hecker represented the original management and was away watching the UA basketball team in the Final Four when sheriff’s deputies and federal officers arrived at the Pinal County site to serve legal notice of the ouster that day. Bannon, Hecker said, “was the new sheriff, or dictator.” Bannon’s actions soon ended up as part of a civil suit filed by some of the original Biospherians against the new guard. In court, he admitted speaking angry words that echo some more recent accusations against him. Back then, the Tucson Citizen reported, citing court testimony, he vowed to kick the ass of Abigail Alling, one of the original Biospherians, who returned from Japan to warn those still inside about the takeover. When Alling wrote a statement spelling out her concerns about safety in the Biosphere, he threatened to “ram it down her (expletive) throat.” Bannon also called Alling a “self-centered, deluded young woman” and a “bimbo.” Those were just a few of the alarming anecdotes from his reign. This year, when a female Breitbart reporter accused Trump’s previous campaign manager, Corey Lewandoski, of assault, Bannon essentially banished her. That prompted another Breitbart writer, Ben Shapiro, to resign and pen a statement lamenting that, “In my opinion, Steve Bannon is a bully, and has sold out Andrew (Breitbart’s) mission in order to back another bully, Donald Trump.” Steve Bannon’s departure from the Biosphere 2 in the 1990s was not the last Bannon involvement there. His brother Chris has remained an administrator up until recent years and still works for the UA’s College of Science, which now runs Biosphere 2."
It is actually a psychological syndrome called irrational antagonism.
i really like his attitude "no experiment is a failure" sounds like something a good science teacher would tell students
There is also a lot of truth in that statement. Alva Edison's assistant was reported to say after 2000 experiments to find an element that worked in his lightbulb, “All our work is in vain. We have learned nothing.” Too which Edison replied, "That's not correct, we now know 2000 materials that will NOT work."
I can't help but picture Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin goofing around in there
viva Las Biodome....
Da Wheaselllll !!! Jus wheassen on da Ju--uice...... bud-hee.. !! Da whe-ssall. gotta bou-ounce - bud-hee.
i was waiting on someone to comment this
facebook.com/kingtkuehn
That should be a movie.
In order to understand the basic nature of “things” you must ask questions. Answers don’t just come to you out of the ether, you must propose a question or attempt an experiment and even then the truth of the answer must be properly understood to be truly helpful. This place is one big question and it has and will continue to provide answers. Knowing what doesn’t work has value and analyzing why things don’t work often leads to a way to do something incredible. This facility didn’t work as planned or hoped but it is still quite valuable to our understanding of the earth and strategies for survival in space.
I just found out about this project one day ago and I have so many questions.
Yes theory brought me here
Me too
me too
Same
Good for you
Same. Never heard of it
Anyone else crazily impressed by the 40,000 lbs of differential air pressure?
13:18 that's so going in my mine!
You'll need more blasting powder for that. :P
Cody'sLab get blasting. also have you had a good at using hmtd to move rock since it's rather simple to make.
Cody'sLab that would be interesting....what would you test with it?
I knew I'd find you here! haha
Cody'sLab hello!!!!!!
I like that they recognized the setbacks and adapted what they were testing for and adjusted their experiments. It makes me feel like they have a very good chance of being the ones to make another jump towards our ability to understand how to make a biosphere or how to start the process for terraforming.
when they said "Split into 2 factions" my mind imidiatelly went to the lord of the flies
The best thing about that experiment is that it showed how importent beautiful and complex the Earth is..
I've visited twice. It's an amazing feat of engineering, and I'd definitely recommend taking a tour.
I'll second this. I visited for the first time on a whim last year. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
It looks like this was the first "Big brother" 😂😂😂
Lmao
Wow. I learned more from this short video about the biosphere than the official documentary with the actual real volunteers!
8:52 when the 20 tons of pressure almost comes down on his skull in a single point of impact LOL
Most of oxygen we breath comes from oceanic cyanobacteria. Installing a raceway pond or a photobioreactor would be a good idea perhaps.
Yes that is true
Probably should have had three quarter water comprising the biosphere.
That is actually a brilliant idea. The ocean is where we get most of our oxegen. The algae and floral is the plant we get our oxegen from.
@I am Groot you need to understand that holding someone's head underwater is a good way to prevent someone from getting oxygen in there lungs. But what that other person was talking about was the plant called algae and floral is where we get the oxygen.
who is this?
8:52 "wooaah, look out" lmaoooo
Understand the complexity of these words: "He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing." I am late for about 5 years, still, thanks for the good stuff!
Did anyone else think of "biodome" when they noticed this video?
facebook.com/kingtkuehn
hahaha, I knew it wouldn't take long to find this comment! haha, it is one of my most guilty pleasure movies. I love it.
Oh yeah
If you were a yogurt, would be fruit on the bottom, or.. pre-stirred?
Oh snap, is this what Bio-Dome with Pauly Shore is based on?
Dr. Orpheus free the mahi mahi
my first thought . i swear it looks almost exactly like it
I thought the same Thing
yes
I was thinking the exact same thing!!!!!!
I remember going here when i was in 5 grade. Like 50 miles out of town. Super awesome place.
This is also an awesome learning model for these Atlantis idea being revisited, initially by Fabian Cousteau's current search for financial backers for an underwater space station or sea lab.
The artificial lung is fascinating, made me wonder if they could use it to pump the water from the lowest point to the highest point - or as just a general way to produce power.
Interesting question. It would be pretty steam punk/ Jules Vernes looking I bet. But I have to wonder if solar isn't more practical. Although I'd think they'd have to be plugged into the grid based on the enormous amount of energy that place consumes. I'd love to know how many Kh it uses a month.
@@againstthemodernworld3253 I think a mix of a bunch of different energy sources is the best. You'll never know when one of them will fail.
Most likely not. The reason being is that it has to be the most easily movable part of the building so that it can be shifted around by the excess/limited air pressure to keep the building's pressure relatively steady. As soon as you load it with water or attach any sort of device to extract mechanical energy from it, it would be much too difficult to move, and the primary purpose is defeated.
I found it interesting that the thing nearly flattened his head while they were recording.
The lung is a massive room and the diaphragm that changes position to the air pressure is pretty big, but fairly easy to move, which means it doesn't input/output much work that could be harnessed. My tour guide let our group push it around. It does not store energy well as it has to be more movable than the thousands of glass panels throughout the place to keep from popping out, which it doesn't take much of a difference in air pressure to do. If resistance were added to it, such as forcing a rotor through a magnetic field in a generator, then it would defeat it's entire purpose of being easier to move than the windows. Many people don't realize this, but most all buildings and cars are vented or intentionally left imperfectly unsealed to allow air pressure to equalize so windows aren't easily popped out. I worked at a body shop for a couple years and the shop foreman taped over all the hidden exit vents just to show me a cool trick in popping out the windshield and rear window of a sedan just by slamming the car door. Window seams in normal construction do not fair well to unequal pressure.
Nice Vidéo ! i just discover your channel its a good stuff !!
The guy with the glasses looks like a sims character 😂😂🤙🏻
What the..
I remember going to the biosphere when I was in junior high. I thought the idea of having a biosphere within a biosphere (our Earth) was amazing. It's to bad that at the time we could not go into the rain forest section of it though. If I remember correctly, they were preforming an experiment and had pumped four times the amount of carbon dioxide into the chamber than it would regularly have. Still the experience was amazing overall. I suggest going to it a least once in your life. The place is pretty amazing.
I don't really understand why they had to recreate all the different biomes. Desert, rainforest etc. Perhaps they giving the whole 'second earth' idea poetic justice but maybe the original experiment could have gone better if they stuck to perfecting one biome rather than multiple imperfect ones.
+Tom Langford The original plan was very ambitious. Probably too ambitious. But I think they were confident they could make all these different biomes work as well as house people. It's also more exciting and it was probably easier to drum up investors when you could say you were replicating the entire Earth and not just a single habitat. But it probably would've turned out better if they had gone for something simpler.
It was an experiment, a first, and a learning process. They learned that concrete gives off CO2 for longer than they anticipated. They also learned that even if you get the environment part right, the human part can still go wrong. Great to see it's still being used to learn stuff. It's like a CERN for environment science.
More than ambition, it was a lack of knowledge and common sense. Try this again with all the info now available thanks to the internet, and it will work.
They imagined the research and funding would keep going as planned at the start, if they knew everything was doomed to fall apart it wouldn't be done in the first place.
It's really a shame they didn't prefect the single biome first. Instead of having a proof of concept we can do something, we have a proof of concept we can't do anything. Besides, what kind of actual engineer designed this? Sounds more like it came out of a fiction design than a proper engineering one. It's obvious the proportions are all terribly wrong. The ocean is 2/3rds of the earth's surface, but also miles deep. What's so important about that? Plankton generates 2/3rds of our oxygen. So you have to generate an overabundance of oxygen from plants to compensate. Now, instead of mimicking Earth, you're tweaking Earth, which implies you know the net qualities of every biome independently... which you don't. Secondly, it's not a closed system mimicking Earth properly because Earth has drastically different temperatures from biome to biome, different amounts of sunlight, different wind patterns, etc. It'd make more sense if they had solar panels on top and used artificial light to mimick the sun, so they had the differential lighting correct. It'd also help to make everything isothermal, so you can test that part. The lung would be meaningless at that point, which is a plus. All in all, the complexity is so high, and the design so shitty it's hard to believe someone actually engineered this. A better test would've been to first build an artificial biome with a controllable O2-CO2-N2 ratio, preferably using bio-air scrubbers as opposed to mechanical ones that have filters that need to be replaced. Don't even bother with food or animals yet. Can you predict how much biomass you need produce X O2 and consume Y CO2, and can you controllably sustain that biomass? How do you deal with soil nutrients, and can you solve this problem without intervention post set-up? How much area do you need for this? Once you have that down, then you can scale up the test to produce food and support life, but don't use humans. Use some kind of herbavore, like mice, or maybe some kind of food chain like rats and owls. If you can predict how much food you need and what the effects of getting that food have on the eco-system's O2-CO2-N2 supply and the soil, then you can finally scale up to humans, with a single biome. Finally, you can try different biomes and then combine them... But there are a dozen major envelope milestones before you get from where we are now "Literally nowhere" to "can controllably support human life in a wide array of biomes".
Fascinating stuff! I would love to visit that place!
Who’s here after yes theory?
Heyy Mann Fist Bump
Yes, this video is better. No silly crying girl. Call me insensitive, I don't care, I came to learn about an experiment, not listen about someone's problems.
@@amberslahlize7961 yes sir in inductive
I’ve been saying it from the beginning if you want a project like this (or a colony on mars) to work you need to engage the Amish. They already live isolated in small groups and work very hard with no modern conveniences or entertainment. They know how to get along and submit to each other.
I wouldn't call it getting along lol just fighting behind a closed door quietly 😅
Thanks guys this was interesting and happily informative. im glad bio-dome 2 is still useful.
Grew up right next to this place! Used to go here all the time on field trips!
Went to visit this place this past weekend. Was very cool to see in person
I visited Biodome 2 in 2012. I would recommend it to anybody. It looks like they have been doing some cool stuff between then and this 2015 video. I would be interested in knowing what they're doing now. I'm glad U of A took over this project. It's unfortunate that there were so many engineering, scientific and psychological shortcomings, but I would never call it a failure. They learned a lot, and the research continues with other projects.
Johnny B I’m actually going to post some footage from my visit two years ago.
@@brandonkelbe yes please!
When are they going to put a Biosphere 3 inside the Biosphere 2 inside the Biosphere 1.
Bioception
No. When are they going to put bioshpere 1 in biosphere 0?!!
@@harrue it's already in it
El Nor ???
they did 13:18
I like it that there still trying to learn all they can it's still very important research
I like how the biosphere flourished without humans, it's like the rest of Earth lol.
It wasn't totally without humans. Someone had to keep the pumps running.
@@flukeseawalker Desmond in the hatch?
Lol and they have been cutting weed for sure, just dont cut the grass of the garden for 23 years yikes
Which tells us the earth will survive no matter what, people will not. Therefore worry about the thriving welfare of it's humans should be priority #1, do not hinder them in the name of environmentalism or too many regulations.
@@deksam101 So you think we should just destroy the planet because it will survive anything we throw at it? Sure even in the event of a nuclear war, the planet will survive, but I'd rather live on a green planet with clean water than on a blasted waste land that will take hundreds if not thousands of years to recover... If anything we should be reducing the amount of people, and we should be trying to take care of the planet. If we take care of the planet then humans will live longer on it, we need regulations because humans have a tendency to screw everyone over for their own gain. If you really think that allowing anyone to do what they want won't accelerate the extinction of humanity then I don't know what to tell you because that's just moronic.
I hate when I run into something like this months after the fact. I wish they had said something about pollinators. Are their pollinators for all the plants in there? And I was hoping they would tell some cockroach stories, I understand cockroaches were a problem during the original experiment. I'd say they learned more from Biosphere 2 than they wanted to learn. That we'd better take good care of Biosphere 1 because we aren't going anywhere.
MakeMeThinkAgain there were bees, they died almost immediately. The crew hand pollinated with paint brushes. I go to UA, and ive never heard anything about cockroaches, so cant help you there.
Ants were the big problem when I was there.
University of Arizona announces Earth 2
Great video. Very interesting
This was SO AWESOME!!! Does anybody know if there's any well written books on the crew experiments? I would love to learn more about what they're doing today. This seems to be an incredible resource especially in today's world. Maybe it's me but it also seems kinda underrated! This is really awesome
Yes. Pushing Our Limits: Insights from Biosphere 2 by Mark Nelson. Check it out.
I found that 40 thousand pound diaphragm floating there by way of air pressure differential quite fascinating. Really something to see.
I feel like someone should make a new version of this, using today's knowledge and technology. It would be very helpful for today's space ideas.
1
13:30
I think O2-producing algae tanks would be required. 70% of our O2 is from algae. 30% from land plants.
Have a look at the eden project in Cornwall.
Trust me, we don't know THAT much more... I'm saying this as a biologist :).
It was mind blowing to know. Thanks for sharing 👍 😊
This is amazing. It wasn't a failure. This is one ambitious project and a task.
I lived in Arizona for 16 years and I went there for my first time today
PSN iiDearly That’s awesome, very nice how was your experience?
ave you ever seen the movie Raising Arizona?
That was cool. I remember Biosphere 2 when I was a kid, and just remember the controversy and "failure" of it. But that was the last I ever heard of it. Glad it didn't go to waste and even though its original intent was unfulfilled, it's still being used to some benifit.
2 years in there. I thought he was about to say they are still in there! I remember seeing a film or documentary about this years ago.
Having just watched the documentary. I am glad this did not end it an abandoned building. It seems that the people that started this, their efforts did not go to waste.
I AM A GIANT SQUID OF EXCITEMENT stuff like this is so awesome and interesting and I'm so glad there are so many people thinking and researching important and pertinent to what's happening. It's kind of baffling that a lot of people aren't aware of so many amazing things that are happening.. but to be fair, I didn't know about biosphere 2 until this video:P
+Aerin L Try looking for Elon Musk.
Aerin L I feel like you felt what I felt when I watch stuff about AI. I get all giddy with excitement. I just found this. If I was a billionaire I would want to donate a whole building to this place.
:D oh my gosh saaame, about the donating to this place if you were a billionare!! and i'm so happy to be reminded about this! thanks:)
Aerin L ftyghgyfgyfd
Are you from Antarctica ?
I didn’t realize the movie Bio-dome was based on a true story...
Yeah, except one is a shitty abomination of a movie, and the other is an actual experiment ran by actual scientists to understand nature!
Odd haven- Considering that Biosphere 2 was built from 1987-1991, and Biodome was released in 1996, I highly doubt that.
1:10 OMG the real life Peter Weyland
@@LimpPickle. Actachually....
@@slimbojimbo4819 One was a shitty movie, one was a shitty experiment.
My wife and I visited this place in 1999 and were amazed at the complexity to develop and maintain this facility. We did not see or here about the lung, Thanks for putting on "You Tube". Better education than on TV.
We just did two tours yesterday and beside all the controversy and other bad press it is an amazing thing to see in person. The underground tour was the best.
Biosphere 2 = Vault-Tec Vault Experiment 1
A 3.14 acre research facility? Did they really buy Pi acres land, or was that just a happy accident?
+TheHumbleBeez They bought the whole mesa top, but only enclosed a little over 3 acres, someone else rounded it off to Pi.
+Larry Littlefield Bio 2 is located on the former Motorola corporate site. 3,000+ acres including an airstrip.
+karen nelson Yes. I worked there during construction, 1988 to 1991. Do I know you?
+Larry Littlefield Probably do. I was the site paramedic. Originally worked for Diversified.
+Larry Littlefield Who did you work for?
Coming here after seeing Spaceship Earth on Hulu. How cool that Craig got to go inside!
Interesting and kind of a forefront when you think about it, the self contained hydro/aquaponic setups are huge now and the more solar/wind we can use the more each person/family/community can be self sufficient well until the man comes hunting you down
What would a more modern attempt at this be like? What would be changed?
ilikeceral3 It will work better, but the other difference is that there will be way more people complaining that it is a waste of money that could've been blown up in Iraq.
They would be taking into account the *micro-biome*, something which they obviously missed with the first conception. Micro-organisms are critically important to the Earth's biome. They produce a huge fraction of the Earth's oxygen; stuff in the ocean, not trees on the land. Which leads to the obvious missing component to Biosphere 2: A huge proportion to water compared with land.. How much of Earth is water, & how much is land? They had like, one friggin little pond, which was something like 20% of their entire system. That's not Earth....
@positron underVolt It doesn't really matter if it matches earth. It matters more that the ecosystem generates all the nutrients people need as quickly as possible. Water based ecosystems like freshwater ponds and coral reefs tend to generate a lot of biomass very quickly, and in addition to that, it's easier to make a solid have the same refractive index as water, so less light will be wasted, and since water is incompressible, you wouldn't need to worry about pressurization like you would with oxygen. If we were to try our best to make a self-sustaining, resiliant ecosystem with the intention for space habitation, like the original biosphere 2, I imagine we'd send up a small extension to the ISS filled entirely with water, moss, maybe some small animals to feed on the moss and generate proteins and B12 the moss wouldn't have, and maybe some radiation tolerant lifeforms like the radiodurans. Though, that would be after keeping some similar versions back home. If that technology was developed further, I could imagine future ships lined with green honey combed sections of moss and water (In case a micro-meteor strikes one section), in addition to the solar panels.
Modernize by not trying to recreate a biome but instead to use renewable vegetation to filter air and water while being able to be prepared as various tasty foods. No soil needed, minimizes bacteria since they will be used as a tool not a hitchhiker.
it needs more water....the lake is too small...the majority of the oxygen doesnt come from trees and plants but oceans
I remember going on a field trip here like 4 years in a row when I was younger.
Im glad to see the biosphere still valuable. Reading books as a child about it, and dreaming of its potential. Pauly shore cinematography ventures aside Id like to see a revisit of the tests of isolated living challenge. Naturally with adaptive research of implementing emotional intelligent leadership and human behavior science modeling.
Hi, well planned and informative presentation. How does the center of gravity(less or more than Earth's) affect osmosis and photosynthesis? Would everything have to be conducted in a vacuum to compensate for water to be taken up by plant roots? thanks again. How beautiful yet complex the earth really is.
I don't think it was a failure, more of a learning experience. :) The earth cannot be called a closed system though, as it is not isolated from the rest of the universe. It benefits in intricate ways from light, dust and particles penetrating the atmosphere on a daily basis. :D
True.. if you fail twice doesn't mean you fail whole life. it was part of learning btw.
I know this is a bit late. Biospheres are considered closed systems because they allow no (or almost) matter to cross its frontiers, while allowing a certain energy flow. So no, not entirely close, but it still fits the concept.
I agree its being used as a learning experience. I'd like to get my hands on the papers written and see what has to be said concerning the matter, I think it would be a very enlightening read.
Sorry to break it got you but earth is flat
Earth also benefits from gases and minerals from volcanic activity, plus not only is the volume of the atmosphere much larger than the volume of Biosphere 2 hence buffering diurnal changes in O2 and CO2 production, the atmosphere also covers both day and night sides of the Earth. They would have to mechanically trap, store and release both oxygen and CO2 to emulate a greater volume in any artificial habitat and or have mixed day night cycles throughout the habitat.
We built the Viscount Hotel, on Broadway. We finished the structure two weeks early. As a reward they laid us all off. I went and got a year-round job. The crew called me two month later and said 'Come to work.' I said 'I have a job.' Years later, I find out it was this. My resume could'a used (would'a been) that line.
Knowledge is the ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail that is never ending. We will never know all knowledge as it grows and ever expands with us and this universe, but that is no excuse to give up. Great video! Thanks!
Amazing stuff
I'd like to see a bigger version. I bet some of the kinks could be ironed out by making it easier and then going smaller. They try to mimic the earth by not doing the percentiles properly. I bet most of it would have to be ocean, as all plants inside developed in a habitat where most surface is just that. Not a single mention of algae.
It's interesting how humans behave, not just in this experiment, but how they divided into two different groups. It reminds me of lord of the flies or Survivor lol Joking aside, this was a massive undertaking and no one knows how things were except the people who lived it.
People will always normally and naturally gravitate towards a groups of people that most resemble themselves. All animals do it actually.
this is the most fascinating thing ever
the teams may hav failed but the experiment is still running, still people can learn from it. I mean if peopl cannot make mistakes to begin with what can you learn ? if one is not willing to fail one is also not willing to learn so it is still an ongoing and impressive project which I think is amazing. keep up the good works folks...
Wheezy Waiter, meet Giant Lung
+James Craver There are 2 lungs.
It's so sad to see how the prediction in this experiment has come true and Australia has lost it's biggest coral reef. It seems like people just don't give two hoots about science any more. We just listen to what is convenient and what is beneficial for us in an immediate effect.
That's massive- and social media for ya lad.
well i sure hope Australia finds it, can't have coral reefs on the lose.
Australia cannot do much on itself. The reefs are dying because the Ocean temperature is rising and this warm water is killing corrals. Not only Australia has caused it, although their coal industry and importing coal to Chinese factories has added a lot. And say thanks to Trump who cancelled the Climatic Agreement because he 'cared about his country'.
@@bebehasbebehas2287 the climate agreement was worthless. Most countries just agreed to maybe hopefully potentially think about slightly improving on the pollution they put out... Some day in the distant future. The US was the only country to take it seriously in any way.
Ppl be like "Why Be Informed When You Can Use Your Feelings As Your Facts?" LOLz
Visited Biosphere 2 a couple of years ago. Amazing and massive!!!
Awesome project ! A complete success in my book ! This is science
Imagine all of the money goes into keep that place running.
I can think of MANY more wasteful ideas to use money!!! This is STILL good learning!!!
Check into NASA
Its a good battleroyale arena...
So the movie "bio dome" was way closer to documentary than I would have ever considered?! 😂
Yeah buuuuuuudy
Insanely interesting!
I read the science report for one of the experiments before and it’s really interesting. One problem was the high increase in ant population (especially fire ants). They didn’t balance the ecosystem correctly and it went out of wack within a few months.
How does biosphere 2 compare in size to the Eden Project?
According to Wikipedia Eden projects two domes are 3.9 and 1.6 acres. But they are separated and not isolated from the outside environment. (biosphere is 3.14 acres). They have windows and doorways so they're not sealed off like biosphere 2 is. I'd be interested to know what insects the biosphere houses for pollination, I know that's a very important part of the Eden project.
I saw that Steve Bannon was somehow involved in Biosphere 2 back in the day, what did he do on the project?
Probably wanted to turn it into a reality show.
He was the specialist in charge of hot air.
Went to this as a kid in the 90's was a surreal experience for sure have not been back, but want to so I definitely will.
I've lived in Tucson, Arizona for all my life and for the majority of it I wasn't aware of Biosphere 2. I'm planning on visiting Biosphere 2 this summer.
"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another which states that this has already happened." This introduction to The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Douglas Adams) kind of summarizes my adoration for our attempts at understanding the realm of reality in which we exist (science). No matter how much we invest in exploration and understanding, there will always be more for us to explore and discover, so long as we look in the right places. Perhaps we can eventually say we have a pretty firm understanding of earth itself, but when you include the questions regarding its position within the universe and how it affects celestial bodies millions of light-years away, or all the subatomic routines that affect everything that occurs on the planet, I think there may never be a point at which we say "yep, we know everything there is to know about planet Earth." Maybe one day we'll transcend into something more complex as the Ellimist did, but that day is nowhere near us. Or perhaps that day is just around the corner, depending on your perception of time.
Xalder love those books man
So with plenty of sun and power, a huge structure already set up, no vacuum, no radiation, no poisonous atmosphere, earth gravity and planted crops, they still failed twice. Doesnt give a lot of hope for an expedition to another planet
Humans are what really fail they fight and split and then they sabotaged the 2nd experiment
We think, it’s a good idea to use ‘Biosphere 2’ for new scientific research. It can be very useful in the future for surviving in another way, on a different planet. We are very exited to see what it will become.
Very cool experiment
I feel so intelligently aware of the world little by little form your videos. Keep teaching me, I want to know more