Bye Bye Biosphere

June 19, 2006 9:33 PM

In middle school during the late 80s, the biosphere was the coolness, but it's since fallen on hard times, and will now make way to the unending housing developments between Phoenix and Tucson (top story). Viva la science!
posted by bjork24 (22 comments total)

I blame Pauly Shore and one of the Baldwins, it does not matter which one. This is actually kind of a bummer.
posted by fenriq at 9:46 PM on June 19, 2006

I can't believe they built that ridiculous place. Did Columbia ever get any useful research done there?
posted by delmoi at 9:52 PM on June 19, 2006

anyone else make a model one out of a shoebox and plastic wrap for 6th grade science?
posted by teishu at 9:55 PM on June 19, 2006

If the thing worked perfectly then I'm not sure you would be able to call it useful. This is an experiment that reveals things about how the world works in the whys and hows of it breaking down.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 10:25 PM on June 19, 2006

Dude, you put your weed in there.
posted by loquacious at 10:42 PM on June 19, 2006

Did Columbia ever get any useful research done there?

yah, they found out you can't really trap 7 men and women in a small container on the surface of our own planet without them going batshitinsane and hurting themselves/each other, let alone shooting the whole ordeal into space.
posted by carsonb at 12:51 AM on June 20, 2006

grr, syntax.

also, the developers and city planners in southern AZ are obviously as insane as the people that were trapped in that bubble. Tucson's life support system is failing (there's no water here!), Phoenix is a blight on the earth, and still people come in droves. those real estate developments will feature thousands of lawns, millions of miles of sprinkler piping, hundreds of holes of golf, and exactly zero of the amazing and unique flora/fauna that used to live where Bob & Nancy now find their baby factory.
posted by carsonb at 1:02 AM on June 20, 2006

Zooming out a little you can already see the housing developments marching across the desert towards it.
posted by heydanno at 4:43 AM on June 20, 2006

It should remain a shrine - imagine visiting a 19th century biosphere, it would be Jules Verne-like.
posted by stbalbach at 5:24 AM on June 20, 2006

Tucson's life support system is failing (there's no water here!), Phoenix is a blight on the earth, and still people come in droves.

Of course they do. It's still way better than Los Angeles.
posted by Vetinari at 5:41 AM on June 20, 2006

I had a behind-the-scenes tour, once. There's a maze of tunnels, catwalks, ducts, etc., around the various greenhouses. Apparently the thing never worked from day 1 - they opened it before the cement had cured, and that screwed up the atmosphere inside. I have a Biosphere snowglobe somewhere, kind of ironic as it is set in the middle of the desert.

Did Columbia ever get any useful research done there?

I think at one point they were doing research on trees-as- greenhouse-gas-sinks. Also, they ran it as a kind of science camp, where they could charge undergrads to stay there and do some experiments.
posted by carter at 7:08 AM on June 20, 2006

I had a behind-the-scenes tour, once. There's a maze of tunnels, catwalks, ducts, etc., around the various greenhouses.

So did I. I found the lung rooms facinating.
posted by Mr_Zero at 7:21 AM on June 20, 2006

The lungs are great!
posted by carter at 7:29 AM on June 20, 2006

also, the developers and city planners in southern AZ are obviously as insane as the people that were trapped in that bubble. Tucson's life support system is failing (there's no water here!), Phoenix is a blight on the earth, and still people come in droves. those real estate developments will feature thousands of lawns, millions of miles of sprinkler piping, hundreds of holes of golf, and exactly zero of the amazing and unique flora/fauna that used to live where Bob & Nancy now find their baby factory.

Very astute observations, carsonb. But all that matters to Bob and Nancy is cheap land and cheap houses. Water? A mere inconvenient detail.
posted by blucevalo at 8:07 AM on June 20, 2006

Of course they do. It's still way better than Los Angeles.

Heh. A year and a half of living in Phoenix and I actually miss the fuck out of LA. At least LA has more than a dozen decent and affordable restaurants, and they even often stay open past 9 PM.

And the real estate developers of Greater Phoenix make the developers of LA - and, well, everyone in LA - seem like rock solid chunks of comfortingly palpable sanity.
posted by loquacious at 8:33 AM on June 20, 2006

loquacious, its that desert sun. I figured it out after a year and a half there, it drives pretty much everyone completely insane!
posted by fenriq at 9:10 AM on June 20, 2006

there must must be some eccentric millionare out there who wants to live in the biosphere... that texan from the simpsons? whatever remains of pauly shore? it could be a career revitalizing move for steve gutenberg or his ilk.
posted by cubby at 10:12 AM on June 20, 2006

This is sad.
Does everything that's done have to be tied to money?
Some things should be done just to see if they can be done.
If I were Bill Gates I'd buy that puppy up, fix it up, and try to work out the kinks.
But then again, I'm not ... so he doesn't think like me.
sad
posted by Dillenger69 at 10:23 AM on June 20, 2006

I was thinking more along the lines of GoogleSphere 2006!
posted by bjork24 at 11:01 AM on June 20, 2006

.
posted by kyleg at 11:04 AM on June 20, 2006

Does everything that's done have to be tied to money?

Welcome to Realityville.
posted by fenriq at 1:38 PM on June 20, 2006

that's too bad. i just visited the biosphere a couple of months ago and i thought it was fascinating. just what we need, more housing developments that all look exactly the same.
posted by brandz at 4:51 PM on June 20, 2006