WEBVTT - Reboot the Biosphere 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:13.640 Works dot com. Hey you, wasn't it stuck to blow 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:15.800 your mind? My name is Robert Lamp and I'm Julie Ducks. 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.520 This is part two of our two part series on 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:23.080 biosphere two. UM. This is definitely one of those that 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:25.000 if you didn't listen to part one, you really need 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:26.480 to go back and listen to part one because there's 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:30.680 very much the uh uh the second helping on this topic. Yeah, 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:32.479 although we will attempt to give you like a two 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:36.559 minute rundown on this alright, uh talking about a desert arc, yes, 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:43.680 in around talking about eight people dressed like star trek ease, Yeah, 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:47.239 kind of in a ascending from a cult like structure 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:51.080 that was very much in tune with an environmental ideas 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:55.240 and gazing beyond planet Earth to possible uh care of 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:59.040 forming of other worlds, yes, and submitting themselves into this 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:03.000 desert arc, this biodome so that they could try to 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:06.960 accomplish this kind of terraforming task and as you say, 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:11.320 a sort of CULTI like a group. These people came 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.720 out of um all under the management of Johnny Dolphin 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:17.920 that's actually the pen name for John Allen who was 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:23.680 the group's leader, and this centric Texan millionaire Edward Bass, 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:27.039 who funded the whole two hundred million dollar projects. Yeah. Yeah, 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:31.919 So in indeed kicking this thing off, you have vision, 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:36.280 you have finance, and you end up having one of 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:40.840 the biggest uh scientific megaprojects you could you could ask for, 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:44.000 certainly to come out of out of the private sphere. Yeah, 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:47.720 because again we're talking about more than seven million cubic 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:51.600 feet here this biodome. We're talking about five different habitats 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:55.200 in the ocean, a desert, rainforest and turned on also 0:01:55.200 --> 0:02:00.120 an agricultural area, beautiful agriculture and all of it, all 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:02.560 of it just created by like some people at the 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:04.800 top of their field. They didn't skimp on this. It 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.640 wasn't somebody just trying to recreate um technology out in 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:11.480 the desert. They were ringing in great minds. UH. Put 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:13.280 a lot of money into this and it was meant 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.720 to last a hundred years with revolving crews as we 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:21.160 would continue to learn from the biosphere and perfect the technology. 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:28.240 But after two years are are eight Biospherians emerged very underweight, 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:31.160 I would say, and orange and orange because of their diet. 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:35.200 But you know, they survived and and they learned some 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:38.520 things about that. But there was so much momentum and 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:41.840 really money that was caught up in this project already 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:45.280 that there was a second Enclosure experiment that began in March. 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:50.080 But you know, as we discussed in their first episode, 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:54.440 the first the first mission was kind of a bust, Yeah, 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:57.320 and the second one was doomed from the start. Yeah, 0:02:57.360 --> 0:02:59.760 they really gave it. I mean the first mission they 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:04.160 went the full two years. They stuck with it despite 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:09.400 all of the problems, the infighting, the infighting, coaches, the cockroaches, 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:13.960 they just spiraling collapse of everything, the the extinctions. It was, 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.919 everything was in just pretty bad shape. But then yeah, 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:19.040 they they pushed on and they said, all right, let's 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:20.840 spruce it up, let's get some new people in there, 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:23.720 let's go to phase two. But it was very much 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:28.680 like that that final date in a relationship where maybe 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:30.920 one side thinks that this can still work. You know, 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:32.640 we still got it, we still got the magic, and 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:36.160 the other side has arrived at the dinner to break up. 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:39.480 This is the money man, right, this is Bass and 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:42.720 uh he Edward Bass at this point is really frustrated 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:45.720 by the growing costs and the lack of communication because again, 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:47.640 as we had discussed in the other episode, there's a 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:51.280 lack of transparency. That kind of pr is bad, and 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:53.360 so he tries to seize back the property with the 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:57.160 help of federal marshals. Now days later, two of the 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:02.920 original Biospherians tried to sab taj the experiment, opening the 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:06.400 doors to the outside. So just after seven months here 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:11.520 the second phase, the second enclosure experiment, it ends. Yeah. 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:15.360 I mean the energy alone has been has been sulid, 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:18.760 you know, and so much of that first venture, that 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:21.920 first crew, that first two years in the biosphere too, 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:24.600 it was sustained by that energy, I feel, and without 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.400 that energy, with that tarnished, I mean, it's just not 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.039 gonna go. Yeah. And at points you could even say 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:33.320 they may have achieved, you know, briefly for minutes, you know, 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:36.600 a utopia. They've had those waterfalls, they were they were 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:40.839 actually harvesting wheat, they were sustaining themselves. Yeah, but you know, 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:45.320 it comes to any utopia idea is ultimately a tragedy story. 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:49.040 You know, these are utopias exist in our our stories 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:51.719 in large parts so that they can fall. And that's 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:53.320 kind of what happened with bi And what I love 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:55.320 about this too is it's such a microcosm of the 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:57.920 corporate world because you know, the first crew, it all, 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.279 it all goes to Helena hand ask, so to speak. 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:03.760 And what does management do Instead of saying, you know, 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:06.640 we should reassess this project or maybe just stop doing it, 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.120 they say, oh, it's just new people we need, we 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:11.040 need new energy in here, and they get a new 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:15.960 crew in um. So bad management happening. So what happens 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:20.760 to our sparkling treasure in the desert. Well, one of 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.480 the key things here is that you even without even 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:28.040 with all this failure behind us, it's still a fabulous structure. 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:31.359 It's still a fabulous facility. I mean, it's it's unparallel. 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:35.039 There's nothing else like it on earth. So it's extremely valuable. 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:36.960 It's not just low let's doze it. Let's turn into 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:40.440 them all like, that's not the first idea that anyone 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:44.600 turns to. And certainly, even with the with the problems 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:48.320 that occurred, even with this, you know, the failure of it, 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:51.320 it still means a lot to the people who conceived 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:52.880 it and paid for it. Sure, and a lot of 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:55.240 them stayed with the project UM, and I don't mean 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.920 the biosperience themselves, other some I'm still consult with it. UM. 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:02.960 In the summer ninety five, Columbia University takes over the 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:06.920 lease and those rice patties and sweet potato fields, the 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:09.960 sweetato fields that sustained half of their diet the first 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:13.360 year for the biasperiens. Those are pulled up and cotton 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:17.200 wood trees are planted in their place, and researchers partitioned 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:22.440 off the giant greenhouse, varying the conditions in each area. 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:24.719 So that was one of the criticisms of the original 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.159 project that there was no controls. Even though you could 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:28.880 say there were some controls in place, they were trying 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:33.600 to control the atmosphere. So the university or Columbia University 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:37.040 begins to study how changes in temperature at different heights 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:40.719 of the tree canopy effect leaf respiration. And they start 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:43.960 to look at different species of invasive ants that had 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:46.839 snuck in and try to figure out, um, you know, 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.280 some of the reef building in the ocean and how 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:51.720 to monitor that. So you get these inklings that hey, 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:53.800 maybe we could repurpose some of this. Yeah, they and 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:56.840 they seem to be hitting their stride just around two 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:00.560 thousand three, but that's when it in the least ends 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:02.560 and uh and then it ends up it's kind of 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:05.480 being shuttered again. One of the problems here is that 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:09.159 is that it was still really costly, uh six thousand 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:11.760 dollars per year mostly for cooling to run this thing. 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:14.960 And there's stuff that the university wanted to do that 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:17.840 they couldn't do because they quote unquote couldn't break it. 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:21.880 You know, they there were limits to how much they 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.160 could they could mess with the with the infrastructure and 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:28.679 with the environments. Yeah, and it's still tied to John Ellen, right, 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:31.240 so he's only going to let people mess with it 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:33.520 to a certain decree. And it's still all essentially on 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:36.640 loan from its owner at best. Yeah, So after two 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:40.320 thousand and three, essentially just becomes a kind of roadside 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:44.680 tourist attraction. And at the same time there's this robust 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:49.120 suburb springing up around it, and it's just a ghost facility. 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:50.520 Like you said, you could you could look through the 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:52.960 windows and you'd see like pins still setting on desk. 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:56.120 You know. It was just right, yeah, haunted by the 0:07:56.160 --> 0:08:00.760 ghosts of the ghosts of the spirit that when into it. Yeah, 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.440 it's just beautiful decay at this point. All right, we're 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:05.240 gonna take a quick break. When we get back, we're 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:14.960 gonna talk about rebooting the biosphere. All right, we're back. 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.119 Um now, as you know, at this point in its history, 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:22.080 it was sold to Wonka Industry and they began creating chocolate. No, no, 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:24.520 not really at the end. All right, if you have 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:27.880 any thoughts, you can always email that now. But in reality, 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.880 we hit the year two thousand seven and then we 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.560 finally begin to see some movement again. And this comes 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:38.320 from the University of Arizona, uh and and this really 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:40.199 came in the nick of time because at this point, 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:42.720 like you said, condos were springing up and the facility 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:45.760 was at real risk of being bulldosed so they could 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:49.000 put up some more condos. So University of Arizona steps 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:51.679 and they take over the lease. And in two thousand 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:54.400 and eleven, after they've been working on it for a while, 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.720 the building was officially donated to the university, and Bass 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.600 ended up contributing twenty million dollars to help get the 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:02.680 project off the ground. Because again, you know, he was 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.760 he was never he was still invested in it, not 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:08.240 only financially, but that invested in the spirit of it. 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:10.120 Like I feel like this is a guy who didn't 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:13.040 want he didn't want that that that that biosphere too 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.439 to become the biosphere to condos. Yeah, because I think 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:18.520 at the end of the day, he believes in the 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:21.360 project and understood that it could have long term impact. 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:24.319 So it was great that University of Arizona stepped in 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:27.320 and in two thousands and something that really did become 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:30.760 interested in it because they wanted to study the relationship 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:33.280 between the desert and the ocean. And they found that 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:36.400 the Gulf of California, the closest marine environment to the 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:40.960 snore and desert, could be studied in the biosphere. Uh 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.520 that the oceans environment that the biosphere had. So for 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:48.040 them it was like this big moment of uh, Okay, 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:51.520 we could really figure out what's going on in this 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:56.400 certain body of water by emulating it here in a 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:59.559 controlled environment, we can mess around and we can get 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:04.520 some really conclusive data. And moreover, you also, by the way, 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:09.640 have this seven million cubic foot atmosphere, this artificial atmosphere, 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:11.520 which is the largest of its kind in the world, 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:13.439 and it's really the only place where you can kind 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:15.880 of study these sort of things in earnest. Yeah. So 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:19.280 while the original ocean was meant to to to be 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:22.319 reminiscent of the Caribbean and all these coral reefs. Um, 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:24.440 they they end up saying, well, let's take a more 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:28.000 local model and installid in here. Uh. Let's get a 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:31.640 little less spaceship with the biosphere too, uh and and 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:37.040 focus more on studying more immediate environment. Yeah, and more 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.199 immediately which we'll talk about in a little bit of 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:41.880 this idea that you can you have like a model 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:44.600 that is expressing itself over a matter of days rather 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.960 than years. Um. Also they could test out marine technology, 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:50.080 which is really helpful. Yeah. So you end up with 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:52.520 a mini ocean, a scale down version of the Gulf 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:55.520 of California. Uh and uh, and you end up with 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:58.960 like starfish, sea arch and small reef fish and bottom 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:01.880 dwelling sharks called the horn shark. And they really want 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:05.319 to get Humboldt squid in there as well. Yeah. Those 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:07.679 are awesome. Um. So what you see here is a 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:11.280 legacy that's beginning to develop, because now the bios here 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:14.600 too has spawn something like one and fifty papers, right, 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.640 all these different studies that are going on. It's proved 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:22.040 that people could indeed exist in a completely closed system, 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:26.319 a manufactured system. Uh yeah, they suffered depression, they became 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:30.360 incredibly thin, but they survived. And so this was also 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:35.120 a precursor for isolated confined environment psychology and bast here 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.160 to really, according to David L. Chandler, writing for Wired, 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:42.920 demonstrated that ecology can be a science. So previous to this, 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:48.600 we we weren't really looking at uh Land air mass 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:52.360 and the intricacies between them in the ocean to figure 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:56.080 out how the environment was sort of doing this tango 0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:59.760 with these different elements. Yeah. You know again, you you 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:02.959 in science, you learn from your missteps as well as 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:07.280 as your successes. And this was such an enormous project 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:11.400 with such an enormous um you know, reach that that 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:13.120 that you end up with having all these lessons that 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:15.880 pop up, and you know, they just had not occurred 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.120 before because no one had dried something like this. Yeah, 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.080 and Chandler says that, um, you know, no one, no 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:23.840 one had ever really essentially made a giant test tube 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.600 with full control of every variable. And he said, you know, 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:31.840 biosphere made complex natural systems more like chemistry and physics 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:35.800 something researchers could experiment on instead of just observe, which 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.160 is key. And it was also deciding that Biosphere two 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:40.719 may not be much of a spaceship, but maybe it's 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:42.560 a bit of a time machine. Yeah, because you can 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:44.040 go back and you can look at the data on 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:47.720 the carbon cycles and see the areas areas in which 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:52.199 scientists can better understand interactions between chemical elements and the atmosphere, 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:56.960 particularly when it comes to carbon fluctuations and tree canopies. 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:00.000 Because consider this, even though a single carbon atom might 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.640 cycle in a few weeks or years on planet Earth, 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:07.839 decades may pass before say a rainforest in Brazil effects 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:12.199 say a farm in Iowa. But in biosphere too, these 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:14.640 kind of conditions can be studied at a much more 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:17.720 rapid pace. So the same carbon cycle would take just 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:23.240 three days before one biome was affected by another. That's amazing, yeah, yeah, 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:26.760 And again studying the world in small to better understand 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:29.720 the world at large. Alright, let's tick through some of 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:32.679 these findings that came out of Biosphere too, and also 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:36.040 kind of maybe accidental findings, you know, I mean, some 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.319 of them obviously were done in earnest, but a lot 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:40.280 of this stuff reminds me of Stephen Johnson when he 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:45.360 talks about innovations and how they will spiral out and 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:48.480 and no one can really predict how one innovation can 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:52.480 come in and affect everything else exactly exactly. So one 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:54.600 thing that we learned here again we mentioned that that 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:59.160 fabulous ocean environment meant to mimic the Caribbean with coral reefs. 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:03.160 What we learned that orl reefs are salvageable. Marine biologist 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:06.840 Guy ailing Us oversaw the artificial reach and reef and 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:09.960 again this was the largest ever constructed um and in 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:14.040 the process she learned lessons from managing ecologically stressed reefs 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.680 in the real world. You know, these are environments where 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:20.760 they're you know, they're they're continually suffering from fishing, from dumping, 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:26.120 from diving, uh adventures that are damaging the fragile ecosystem 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:29.760 of the reef. So we're able to to to to 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:32.680 learn how to say of our actual reefs by studying 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:37.400 them within biosphere too. Yeah, and uh again. David L. Chandler, 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:41.840 writing for Wired, says that complexity is not maybe as well. 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.080 He says, complexity is no obstacle, but I would say 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:48.000 it's maybe not as much as an obstacle. Biosphere two 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:51.760 does have a lesson of complexity. As an obstacle, it does. 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:55.440 It does that the things will collapse. But he says 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.600 the point here is that while some species died out 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:01.760 bees for example, of course we know it's important for pollination. 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:05.160 He says, the system balanced itself remarkably well. And we 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:07.240 have seen that too when we looked at some of 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:11.720 the rewilding studies. Yeah, I mean they say nature finds 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:15.320 a way, right, and uh, but one of the big 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:19.240 concerns for humanity is will nature find a way without us? 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:23.360 All right? Another big lesson is that massive spacecraft will 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:26.560 hold their air again. Space was very much on the 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:29.520 minds of the designers of Biosphere too, and and on 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:31.520 the minds of those that ended up occupying it for 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:33.880 those two years. And the project was one of the 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:37.680 largest seal structures ever built, and yet the overall air 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:41.080 leakage rate was less than ten per per year. The 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.200 big tay home, of course, was do not use concrete 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.760 when making your spaceship, because it ends up sucking up 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:50.680 that CEO two, which the plants need to produce oxygen, 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:55.200 which the humans need to stay alive. Another finding human 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.960 beings can eat less. Well, we know that already, but 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.480 the point year is that Roy Walford, who conducted the 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:08.480 first reliable long term experiment on caloric restriction in biospheriens, 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.240 found that they got the nutrition that they needed with 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:17.000 less food, really, and they emerged with improvements and blood pressure, 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:20.640 cholesterol level and other health indicators. Okay, they might have 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:26.160 become overly obsessed with food and a bit depressed, but hey, 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:29.200 they did they survived. Another big one is that waste 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:32.320 can be recycled. So again for two years, they're all 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:35.880 in there, they're producing waste as well as waste from 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.560 the goats the chickens, and they're recycling all of this 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:43.160 through natural, low tech filtration methods. So the work that 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:45.680 was that was done in biosphere two along these lines 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:48.640 was pioneering and it led to a number of very 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.880 successful subsurface water treatment systems that are now used in 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:55.560 Mexico and other developing countries. Also worth noting that you 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:58.480 look back on how they were recycling their sewage uh 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:01.040 and uh and and and you know, and then re 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:04.040 drinking it once it was purified, purifying it through plants, 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:07.159 soil atmosphere machines, they were doing this back then, and 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:10.000 it wasn't until eighteen late eighteen years later in two 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.639 thousand nine that NASA announced total water recycling on the 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:16.719 International Space Station. Now, you know it's not necessarily one 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:19.199 to one on that scale. But again coming back to 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:23.399 that comparison between the the synergist powered UH movement that 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:27.679 leads to biosphere too and the more controlled environment of 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:32.159 say NASA. Now, one of the rarest microbes ever found 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:35.560 was discovered in the waters of the Biosphere Ocean, and 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:40.160 this amiba is called you Hyperamiba Biospherica, and it thrived 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.520 because there was an absence of natural predators. So the 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:44.600 lesson here is that even though you might have really 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.840 strict biological controls in place, you just don't know what 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:49.840 is going to show up. That's kind of the beauty 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.000 of it. Yeah, you have this contained environment with any 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:54.760 you don't know how all the variable is going to 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.280 shake up, so you might end up essentially with a 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:03.640 stowaway UM. Another big take home here is that sealed 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:08.800 ecosystems have a future. UM Biosphere projects found a number 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:11.880 of imitators, each with its different spin. There was the 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:15.200 verstance the Zurich Zoo reproduced a pet of the piece 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:20.359 of the Madagascar rainforest. The Biosphere Foundation, which can is 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:24.040 actually uh contains some of the Biosphere team are currently 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:27.879 planet planning to build a simulated habitats for prospective Mars colonist. 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:32.640 Because again, the individuals involved in in Biosphere Too, they 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:34.560 didn't just there. It's not like their spirits were all 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:36.119 crushed and they said, all right, I guess I'll just 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:39.320 be a banker. I guess I'll just get hardware store now. 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:41.760 They for the most right, they all remained within the 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:44.639 fields that brought them to Biosphere too, and continue to 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:47.640 work with some of those synergist ideals in their minds. Yeah, 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:51.560 and if you want more information on the biospheres and 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.480 the future of them in terms of space exploration, I 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:57.520 know that tech stuff goes into this topic a little 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.000 bit deeper to try to figure out like what stuff 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:03.639 was actually viable can that you can take from Biosphere 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:07.480 two and some of the nineties six season seventies Biosphere 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:11.240 experiments from Russian and American scientists and what did they 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:13.879 learn from that? So check that out if you're interested. 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:16.720 I also wanted to point out that Jane Pointner, she 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.400 she emerged as the lead scientists. In fact, I think 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:24.080 she was the only degreed scientists um among the biospherians. She, 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:28.560 along with her husband Tabor McCallum, and their company Paragon 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:32.719 Space Development, has had experiments flown on the International Space Station, 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:36.280 the Russian mir Space Station, and the US Space Shuttle, 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:41.600 as well as working on underwater technologies with the US Navy. 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:45.120 And she's also worked on projects to mitigate climate change 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:49.640 and grow crops and um some typically arid and hostile 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:54.119 regions of Africa and Central Africa. So so as you 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:56.960 have mentioned, these are people who are passionate about not 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:01.280 just the project but their respective fields. All right, So 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:04.000 there you have it, our two parter on Biosphere two. 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:06.000 And I really hope here at the end of the day, 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:08.080 you know, now that you've you've given this topic of 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:11.440 chance and then really, you know, let us chat into 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:13.520 your ear for a while about it, that you have 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:17.400 a new respect for what they set out to accomplish, 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:19.320 for some of the ideas going into it, and ultimately 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:21.959 what we end up gaining from Biosphere too, that it 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:24.280 wasn't just one of these sort of v H one 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:27.560 remember the nineties missteps. It was it was more than 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:32.160 just a footnote in the in the cultural history of America. 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:35.520 Yeah that if previous to listening to this, your only 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:39.040 reference to this was Polychhore's Biodome. We hope that has 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:44.919 now been replaced with this, this amazing, ambitious, um really 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:49.239 innovative project that that should get its due for the 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:52.200 impact that it's had on this scientific community. Yeah, indeed, 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:54.159 and really should be. I feel like it should have. 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:57.040 It should be inspiring more and more products. There should be. 0:20:57.480 --> 0:20:59.880 It's a story that should have influence a fiction more. 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.760 We should have, you know, more fictionalized accounts of of 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:07.120 of what this consistent of it should have influenced our 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:09.720 science fiction and and even horror more. I see shades 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:11.920 of it here and there, but not not the profound 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:14.280 impact it feels like it should have had. Yeah. I 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:17.320 cannot believe that there's not a full scale documentary on this, 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:20.520 and I can't believe that more of the Biospherians haven't 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:25.159 talked about their experience beyond Jane Poytner, because this is 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:30.359 really a window into an amazing time and it has 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:32.879 all of the elements I think that that make it 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.280 a fascinating story. I mean you've got the cult angle 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:39.800 to it, you have science, you have this science fiction angle, 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:44.040 you have this idea of terror forming and and then 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:47.159 you've got the psychological component that and I don't know 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:51.240 if we've mentioned this yet, that inspired the TV series 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:54.399 Big Brother. Yeah, yeah, so in that respect it certainly 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:58.159 had a pop cultural residence. But but but yeah, like 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:00.720 why has uh? You know, the sign antologists and l 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:04.200 Ron Hubbard have seen their their altered form takes cinematic 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:07.280 shape in the Master. Why not the sentergis, the synergis 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:11.080 are far more interesting and far more beneficial to h 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:15.240 to human culture. In my opinion, I dare say fun loving, yes, 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:20.080 fun loving to our science loving Alright, so you have 0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:22.320 once again thank you for listening. Be sure to check 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:24.719 out stuff to Blow your Mind dot com because that's 0:22:24.760 --> 0:22:27.400 where you'll find all the podcast episodes, blog post videos, 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:30.760 as well as a cool image gallery of biosphere too. 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:33.200 So if you really need some images to go along 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:35.920 with what you've heard here, check that out and those 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:38.320 those images will take you to a different time, a 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:41.119