Artificial Paradise

Artificial Paradise in the desert (The Project "Biosphere 2")

Perseverance in the pursuit of mankind to know and to subjugate the laws of the universe truly has no boundaries - the world's constantly held complex scientific experiments whose purpose is to study the interaction of man and nature. Sometimes they are successful, but often such investigations turn grandiose failure and fantastic to spend huge sums of money for nothing. One such example is the failed artificial paradise in the middle of the desert in the US state of Arizona - loud research project titled "Biosphere 2".

The idea of creating a closed ecosystem that could provide all their needs on their own, came up with an American enthusiast Joe Allen. Having secured financial support from billionaire Ed Bass, he decided to realize his dream and build a kind of Garden of Eden in a glass case. Were conducted branding and wide advertising campaign. It was assumed that this experiment will begin a new turn in the development of autonomous ecological systems in which a person could survive during natural disasters.

Complex "Biosphere 2" was a system of sealed glass domes, which were placed inside the five landscape units: mini-desert, swamp, a tropical jungle, savannah and even a small ocean with sandy beaches and coral reefs. In addition, the inside was also about 4 thousand species of flora and fauna.

Loud experiment began in 1991, when eight researchers (4 women and 4 men) solemnly entered the biosphere and had lived there for 2 years without consuming absolutely nothing from the outside. The only resource that the complex could not support themselves - electricity; but the water, organic substances and even oxygen were infinitely circulate inside the sealed space.

Unfortunately, the experiment did not justify itself - as it turned out, because of gross scientific errors in the "Biosphere" began to decline sharply the level of oxygen, resulting in the death of animals and plants. People, fortunately, were not injured, but stay in the complex to the end of schedule was given to them is not easy.

Unsuccessful project was named one of the most high-profile scientific failures, and its funding was terminated. Today, "biosphere" just 25 dollars can visit all comers.