Zach & Nick's Excellent Adventure

Around noon today, while Melissa and Jenny went off to go horseback riding, and some of the guys set off on another hiking adventure, Zach and I decided to head off to an area just outside of Oracle,AZ, that is the home of the incredible Biosphere 2. For those of you that don't know, Biosphere 2 is a self-contained closed ecosystem capable of sustaining several independent environments (or biomes), that was built in the mid '80s to the early '90s. Originally, Biosphere 2 was used in a long-term experiment from 1991-1993 in which several participants were sealed in the facility for two entire years, and had to live and work in the Biosphere, while helping to maintain its various biomes. The experiment was considered to be a failure, but it has since been used to help conduct research about our own world by studying the organisms living in Biosphere 2 through the management of the University of Arizona.

While on the guided tour, we were brought through the different biomes such as the savannah, wetlands, swamps, (fog) desert, rainforest, and ocean, each with a different climate/temperature that is controlled through a vast network of air conditioning systems in the basement of Biosphere 2, after which we were brought to the inside of the south "lung", which is a structure that expands/contracts in order to prevent the complex's air pressure from becoming too low or high, which could result in structural failure.

After the tour, Zach & I got a few things from the gift shop & headed back to the hotel, and after telling the others about Biosphere 2, they regretted their other plans and wished that they had gone with us. After dinner, we all watched an amazing movie about George Hale, who was responsible for getting the support and funds to build the biggest and famous observatories ever built (Yerkes,Mt.Wilson,Mt.Palomar,etc.) which all made groundbreaking discoveries in the advancement of modern astronomy through their ability to see deeper and deeper into the vast unknown reaches of the universe.