Biosphere Ii

In the red desert north of Tucson, off-duty federal marshals acting on behalf of Texas billionaire Edward P. Bass seized the Biosphere 2 project Friday, ousting the managers who conceived and constructed the $150-million, state-of-the-art surrogate planet. "This is not an April Fool's joke," Biosphere public affairs director Chris Helms said. "It is a management dispute."

Biosphere emerged Sunday from a two-year experiment in self-sufficiency, filling their lungs with fresh air and waving to about 2,500 reporters and cheering well-wishers. "They said it couldn't be done," said crew member Mark Nelson. "But here we are--healthy, happy." The event, dubbed "re-entry" by Biosphere operators, blended NASA-style techno-speak with the trappings of a Hollywood media event.

CNN's "Future Watch" takes a look at the scientists who are leaving the Biosphere II experiment, today at 1:30 p.m. Sunday marks the end of the two-year ecological program in which four men and four women attempted to create a self-sufficient system for ecological research and a possible model space station, recycling air and water and producing their own food. A mini ocean, rain forest, savannah and a farm are enclosed on three acres near Tucson, Ariz.

If God had been a Texas billionaire, the Garden of Eden might have looked like Biosphere II--a wilderness under glass with a tiny ocean, where the chosen few can stroll to a desert, a tropical forest or a video conference center without leaving the house. In lieu of original sin, there are tourists. Nestled among the prickly pear and flowering barrel cactus in the high desert outside Tucson, Biosphere II encompasses 3.

Each morning inside the glass-enclosed, air-sealed Biosphere 2 project north of Tucson, Ariz., Mark Van Thillo wakes at 6:30, checks the system's machines, eats some organic breakfast foods and works on the farm. On Thursday, he took the time to talk by video teleconference to Capistrano Unified School District students about life inside Biosphere 2. The project is an experiment of ecological self-sufficiency that includes its own rain forest, desert and ocean.

Barbara Smith phoned Roy Walford the other day. Nothing special. Except that Smith was calling from Katmandu and Walford was inside Biosphere 2 in the Arizona desert. And the call was processed through the Electronic Cafe in Santa Monica.

Outside air has been pumped into Biosphere II to compensate for leakage, operators acknowledged Thursday, but they denied that it violates their goal of creating a sealed, self-sustaining world. About 600,000 cubic feet of air was pumped in Dec. 9, amounting to about 10% of the air in the glass-enclosed world, said Bill Dempster of Space Biospheres Ventures. Eight people went into the project Sept. 26 and plan to remain sealed inside for two years.

Move over Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The hottest new tourist attraction in Tucson is Biosphere II, the giant ecological research facility in which four men and four women are attempting to live self-sufficiently, sealed from physical contact with the outside world, until Sept. 26, 1993. An estimated 170,000 amateur scientists and voyeurs have already flocked this year to the facility that looks something like a giant terrarium sitting in the foothills outside Tucson.

A crew member of the Biosphere II environmental laboratory who severed her fingertip returned to the sealed prototype space colony Friday after surgery. Jayne Poynter, the lab's farm manager, was taken to University Medical Center, where her finger was surgically closed after a graft to keep the top half inch of the finger failed. "I feel fine. I'm looking forward to going back into the Biosphere," Poynter said after the surgery. Dr. J.

One of the eight environmentalists sealed inside a gigantic greenhouse in Arizona accidentally cut off the tip of her left middle finger Wednesday morning and may have to be removed from the closed system briefly for further surgery, a spokeswoman for the project said Thursday. Jane Poynter, 29, was operating a rice-hulling machine in the agricultural area of Biosphere 2 when she accidentally stuck her finger in too far, Kathleen Dyhr said.