Biosphere 2 by Johndedios licensed under the terms of CC BY 3.0
This week’s crazy building is Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Arizona.
Biosphere 2’s weird series of structures has an even weirder history.
Based on the name, you may expect that there was a similar building built before this one. In fact, Biosphere 2 was meant as the second self-sufficient biosphere—the first being Earth itself.
It originally contained miniature biomes: a rainforest, a coral reef, a savannah grassland, a fog desert, a mangrove wetlands, and an agriculture system and human habitat.
This massive closed system was used in two major experiments in the early 1990s. Scientists sealed themselves inside (the first time for two years!), produced their own food and maintained the facility.
The experiments were mostly a failure. In the first, oxygen levels dropped, many of the plants and animals died, ants and cockroaches dominated, and the crew had divided into two feuding groups. The second experiment had to be aborted because the parent company went bankrupt.
The biosphere was used for less dramatic experiments by Columbia University until 2005. It was nearly demolished before being purchased by the University of Arizona for further research.
