Playing tourist at the Biosphere 2

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For the last three years, we've seen the ads for Biosphere 2, hyping it as a really cool place to visit. So we decided to take our day off and play tourist after the race. I have to admit, I was a little curious about the whole thing, having read about the Biosphere experiments years ago. I also wanted to know why it was called Biosphere 2 - was there another one built somewhere else? (Answer to that question, Earth is Biosphere 1, Duh.) Nick was also really interested in the science - like how they sealed the sphere, things like that.


It was interesting - we learned a little about the Biosphere experiments, how it was built and how the people who were living in the Biosphere survived. We got a tour of the different biomes in the building - the rainforest, savanna, marsh, desert and ocean. Seeing the rain forest in the middle of the desert was bizarre! Now, it's a giant greenhouse where the University of Arizona and other researchers go to perform large scale, long term experiments on the effects of water and such on plant growth. One of the experiments they were just setting up will be here for ten years. There were poster boards of the different experiments that had been done all around the human habitat area of the Biosphere and some of them sounded pretty interesting. It was cool to see, and now we don't have to wonder anymore!
Biosphere 2 - human habitat and farm area - the rainforest green house slopes off to the left.

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