00:00It was 1994. It was dark, so no one saw two silhouettes opening the emergency exits of a
00:07glass dome complex in Arizona known as Biosphere 2. They were determined to free seven people
00:13locked inside for a month, risking their lives in the name of science. The mission was accomplished,
00:18but they got hit with trespassing and vandalism charges. The vandals were Abigail Ayling and Mark
00:24Banfello. They were among the first eight poor devils who lived in that place as guinea pigs,
00:29and they didn't want anyone else to go through the same horrors they had experienced.
00:34$150 million were spent to see if humans could create suitable living conditions on other planets,
00:40like Mars. To do this, scientists built a mini-world with over 3,000 species of plants and animals.
00:47Biosphere 2 was a sealed-off 3-acre habitat, complete with its own mini-rainforest,
00:53a private beach with a coral reef, a grassland savanna, a marsh, and even a desert.
00:59Between 1991 and 1993, nothing could enter or exit that place. The group of eight people
01:06locked inside called themselves Biospherians, rocking matching Star Trek-like jumpsuits,
01:12growing their own food, and breathing their own air. They began with high hopes and a five-star
01:17hotel-style breakfast, but things took a darker turn over the months.
01:23The whole team was starving and turning orange. In Biosphere 1, which is the real Earth,
01:28you can order a pizza in two minutes. But inside Biosphere 2, it took them an endless four months
01:35to whip up a margarita-style pie. They had to harvest wheat for the dough and milk goats for
01:41the cheese. The goal was to be completely self-sufficient, and they became part of an atmosphere,
01:46quite literally. When they breathed out, their CO2 fed the sweet potatoes they were growing.
01:52And those sweet potatoes became part of them since they were essentially eating the same
01:57carbons over and over again. They had so many sweet potato feasts that their skin actually turned
02:02orange from all the excess beta-carotene. What seemed like a funny situation at the time
02:08highlighted a big issue. The crop yields in Biosphere 2 were a total disappointment,
02:13and the crew was starving. They were going crazy from hunger, and moments of sudden anger led to
02:20doing regrettable things, like stealing bananas from the basement storeroom. At some point,
02:25the freezer had to be locked. Over the first six months, each of them lost between 18 and 58 pounds
02:31of weight. Every day, someone took charge of weighing out fresh food for the cook, logging the information
02:38about nutrients into the computer to make sure the crew hit their recommended calorie, protein,
02:43and fat goals. Initially, meals were served buffet-style. But as the crew got hungrier,
02:49the cooks started to meticulously divide their food into equal portions. Their diet, mostly sweet
02:55potatoes, carrots, fruits, and occasional meat on Sundays, were supposed to keep them going during
03:01those exhausting 80-hour work weeks of heavy physical labor. Biospherians were leaving every meal
03:07still hungry, and they had recurring dreams of McDonald's hamburgers, sushi, Snickers bars,
03:12and cheesecake. The air was running out. The entire place was completely sealed, with steel and glass at
03:20the top and a solid steel floor underneath. Managers made sure to check everything coming in to avoid
03:26synthetic materials emitting harmful gases. Living areas were furnished with wood and wool,
03:32and they couldn't use chemical deodorants or blow out birthday candles. Biospherians were counting on
03:38the food they grew and their many rainforests to produce enough oxygen for them to survive.
03:43However, they were losing oxygen very fast, drowning in their own carbon dioxide emissions,
03:49and worst of all, they had no idea why. With another nine months of the experiment to go,
03:55oxygen levels had dropped from 21% to around 15%, which feels like living at the top of Mount Fuji.
04:02They felt awful, basically dragging themselves around the biosphere. They couldn't even finish
04:07a sentence without stopping to catch a breath. Then sleep apnea kicked in, with some of them waking
04:13up gasping for air. To bring down the carbon levels inside Biosphere 2, they tried some desperate
04:19moves, like growing plants like crazy, cutting back on watering the soil as much as possible,
04:25and even giving up on tilling. Nothing worked. So everyone decided they had hit a dangerously low point,
04:31and asked for help. Refrigerated trucks showed up to pump more pure oxygen into Biosphere 2.
04:38As soon as the gas started flowing in, they burst out laughing and began running around.
04:44The ecosystem was a total mess. Hummingbirds and honeybees vanished after a couple of months,
04:50so plants weren't getting pollinated anymore. Worms and broad mites attacked crops,
04:55and cockroaches just took over. Four species of cockroaches were brought inside to recycle organic
05:01matter. But the regular household cockroach was the ultimate survivor. They somehow sneaked in and
05:07multiplied, becoming a serious threat to crops. At night, the kitchen got flooded with cockroaches as
05:13soon as the lights went out. To combat the infestation, the group greased coffee mugs with lubricant
05:19and put pieces of papaya inside as bait. Roaches would climb inside, but they couldn't scale the
05:25slippery sides to escape. Being hungry, lacking oxygen, dealing with bug infestations, that's
05:32enough to make anyone go nuts. Heated arguments led to cups being thrown and people being spat at.
05:38Eventually, the whole group just split into two. They stopped talking and could walk right past one
05:44another in the hallways without even making eye contact. Half of them wanted more food and oxygen
05:50to continue the research with some dignity, while the other half believed in survival without external
05:55help, no matter the costs. The truth is, the sealed chamber had been breached long before that.
06:02Just two weeks after they got inside, a biospherian named Jane Pointer cut off the tip of her finger
06:08in a cooking accident while making rice. The mission's doctor tried sewing the tip back on,
06:12but it didn't work, and her finger turned black within days. She went to a hospital outside for
06:18surgery, and a couple hours later, she sneaked back inside, carrying a duffel bag filled with
06:24supplies like computer parts and color film. Reporters would only learn of that sneaky delivery months
06:30later, and because of that, many people have questioned the credibility of the entire experiment.
06:36Media treated the experiment like a reality show, branding it as trendy ecological entertainment.
06:42Headline news around the world made it sound as if they were on the brink of losing their lives,
06:47to the point where families were concerned, calling the biospherians to check if they were really okay.
06:53The group felt like they were in a human zoo, with tourists coming from far away to peer into
06:58the glass cage. In the first six months alone, more than 150,000 people visited the place.
07:05Biosphere 2 ended up becoming a pop culture punchline, inspiring a comedy movie called
07:10Biodome and decades of funny sketches. You might be wondering why none of them quit the experiment
07:17and walked out the front door. Well, none of the environmentalists wanted to be the first to admit
07:22it was too much to handle. Plus, they were all still hopeful they could somehow crack the puzzle
07:27of building Earth number two. By the end, they had managed to find seven tons of missing oxygen.
07:33It had been absorbed by the concrete. Even though being breathless all the time might seem like the
07:38biggest challenge they face, the biospherians said that learning how to deal with people in a
07:44closed environment was even harder. It looks like the experiment was a huge failure, but the group did
07:50learn a lot of valuable lessons. They proved that a sealed ecosystem could work for years.
07:56They contributed to studies on reef restoration, and their farms showed that high productivity
08:01and full nutrient recycling could be achieved without toxic chemicals. In case you wondered,
08:07this wasn't the end of the glass complex. The second mission inside Biosphere 2 took place in March
08:131994. Now you can go back to the beginning of the video to understand how that worked out.
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