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Published by Synergetic Press 1 Bluebird Court, Santa Fe, NM 87508 & 24 Old Gloucester St., London, WC1N 3AL England
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Alling, Abigail, author. | Nelson, Mark, 1947- author. | Silverstone, Sally, author.
Title: Life under glass : crucial lessons in planetary stewardship from two years in Biosphere 2 / Mark Nelson, Abigail Alling, and Sally Silverstone ; foreword to second edition Sylvia A. Earle ; foreword to the first edition, Joseph P. Allen ; introduction to the second edition Mark Nelson, Abigail Alling, and Sally Silverstone.
Description: Second edition. | Santa Fe : Synergetic Press, [2020] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020004023 | ISBN 9781882428076 (paperback) | 9780907791775 (eBook)
Subjects: LCSH: Biosphere 2 (Project) | Ecology projects. | Biotic communities--Experiments. | Ecology--Research.
Classification: LCC QH541.2 .A435 2020 | DDC 577.072--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020004023
Cover and book design by Ann Lowe
Managing Editor Second Edition: Amanda Müller
Editor First Edition: Deborah Parrish Snyder
Cover photo by Gill C. Kenny
Printed by Versa Press, USA
This book was printed on Evergreen Skyland White Offset
Typeface: Gill Sans and Adobe Garamond Pro
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword to the Second Edition by Sylvia A. Earle
Foreword to the First Edition by Joseph P. Allen
Introduction: Looking Back on Living in Biosphere 2
Chapter 3Monitoring the Environment
Chapter 5Hunger and Resourcefulness
Chapter 10The Three-Acre Test Tube
Chapter 11Communication Through the Electrons
Epilogue: The Adventure Never Ends
Biosphere 2, 1991.
FOREWORD TO SECOND EDITION by Sylvia A. Earle
“YES!” WAS MY IMMEDIATE RESPONSE to the invitation to be present and speak at the opening of Biosphere 2 after eight intrepid explorers had lived and worked within the confines of their glass-enclosed microcosm for two full years, September 26, 1991-September 26, 1993. Like many others, I had followed with fascinated interest what seemed to be an Arthur C. Clarke-like futuristic fantasy, but in fact involved real people living an otherworldly experience in real time. As a witness, as a scientist, and as one who had been part of a space simulation project more than twenty years earlier, I was intrigued and sometimes incredulous as the audacity of the Biosphere 2 vision became a successful reality. The Biosphere 2 team quickly demonstrated that one doesn’t have to travel far to discover extraordinary new horizons.
Like Abigail (Gaie) Alling, co-author of this book, I am a marine biologist who literally becomes immersed in my research. I could not resist the opportunity in 1970 to live underwater for two weeks, leading a team of five women scientists and engineers during the NASA-US Navy-Smithsonian Institution-US Department of the Interior-sponsored Tektite II Project. Like the biospherians, those of us who lived as aquanauts isolated from direct contact with people on the outside were subjected to intense scrutiny by physicians, psychologists, and the public who were hoping to learn from the behavior of the ten teams who participated in the project, insights applicable to living in space and potentially, on the moon or other planets.
And, like the biospherians, we were keenly aware of the limits of our life support systems, from food and freshwater supply, to temperature, pressure, and especially the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air. But unlike them, we did not face the challenge of spending two years essentially self-contained, relying on living systems that had to be assiduously cared for to produce food and oxygen, absorb carbon dioxide, recycle wastes and otherwise provide for aesthetic and psychologically pleasing surroundings.
