Download or read book Life Under Glass written by Mark Nelson and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life Under Glass tells the fascinating story of four men and four women who lived and worked inside the Biosphere 2 structure, where they recycled their air, water, food, and wastes, setting a world record for time spent in a closed ecological system. This is the only account written during the unprecedented experiment while the team was enclosed inside.
Download or read book Biosphere 2 written by John Polk Allen and published by Viking Adult. This book was released on 1991 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Dreaming the Biosphere written by Rebecca Reider and published by University of New Mexico Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reider tells the tangled tale of the creation, and eventual disintegration, of the experimental eco-utopia known as Biosphere 2.
Download or read book The Human Experiment written by Jane Poynter and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2006-08-18 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's a story that has never been told … until now. Imagine being sealed into a closed environment for two years — cut off from the outside world with only seven other people — enduring never-ending hunger, severely low levels of oxygen, and extremely difficult relationships. Crew members struggled to survive in Biosphere 2, where they swore nothing would go in or out — no food or water, not even air — all in the name of science. For the first time, biospherian Jane Poynter — who lived and loved in the Biosphere — is ready to share what really happened in there. She takes readers on a riveting, fast-paced trip through shattered lives, scientific discovery, cults, love, fears of insanity, and inspiring human endurance. The eight biospherians who closed themselves into the Biosphere emerged 730 days later… much wiser, thinner, and having done what many had said was impossible.
Download or read book Inside Biosphere 2 written by Mary Kay Carson and published by HMH Books For Young Readers. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: * "This enlightening title adeptly connects Biosphere 2's past with its present and future. Stunning photographs, clear and colorful graphics, and illuminating insets enhance the appeal...Highly recommended." --School Library Journal, starred review As climate change threatens our Earth more and more, readers will be drawn to this exciting nonfiction that details a massive experiment that strived to save our world from its biggest threat--ourselves.
Download or read book Life Under Glass written by Abigail Alling and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book is a revised second edition of the first edition. Second ed. includes foreword, introduction, and afterword materials provided by authors. The story itself is that of a two year experiment in the 1990s, the first fully closed system experiment in the world. The authors share the story of "living inside": from their fully self-sufficient diet, daily maintenance of the experiment, and the ways they kept themselves nourished, and entertained for their two years away from the world on the outside. The added edition will also include some highlights, lightly detailing a few of the findings of their experiment"--
Download or read book Me and the Biospheres written by John Polk Allen and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Synergetic Press is proud to announce the long-awaited release of Me and the Biospheres: A Memoir by the Inventor of Biosphere 2, the definitive autobiography of one of the most luminous minds of our time. Accomplished poet, philosopher, inventor and total systems scientist, John Allen is a charming and engaging guide to how the world's largest laboratory for global ecology ever built came to be. Anyone suffering from the Global Warming Blues will cherish this uplifting account of the most ambitious environmental experiment ever undertaken. Biosphere 2, a world under glass, covered three acres of Arizona desert. Contained within a magnificently designed air-tight, sealed glass and steel framed architectural setting were models of seven biomes: an ocean with coral reef, marsh, rainforest, savannah, desert, farm and a micro-city. Eight people lived inside this structure for two years (1991-1993) setting world records in human life support, monitoring their impact on the environment, while providing crucial data for future manned missions into outer space. John Allen prepared for the manifestation of Biosphere 2 by assembling many smaller projects: the creation of a ferro-cement hulled ship to study ocean and river ecologies and cultures; the development of a rainforest enrichment project, a theater group, world-class art gallery and more. As awe inspiring as the great cathedrals, Biosphere 2's building and operation demanded the efforts of the most diverse team of scientists, engineers, artists and thinkers from around the world with whom John Allen worked closely for decades. His memoir is a rich and complex narrative, filled with rollicking adventure, exceptional camaraderie and mind-bending science, lavishly illustrated with nearly four hundred photographs. Me and the Biospheres is a passionate call to reawaken to the beauty of our peerless home, Biosphere 1, the Earth.
Download or read book Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems written by Brian Harrison Walker and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996-11-13 with total page 654 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This major new book presents a collection of essays by leading authorities who address the current state of knowledge. The chapters bring together the early results of an international scientific research program designed to address what will happen to our ability to produce food and fiber, and what effects there will be on biological diversity under rapid environmental change. This book addresses how these changes to terrestrial ecosystems will feed back to further environmental change. International in scope, this state-of-the-art assessment will interest policymakers, students and scientists interested in global change, climate change and biodiversity. Special features include descriptions of a dynamic global vegetation model, developing generic crop models and a special section on the emerging discipline of global ecology.
Download or read book Terraria Gigantica written by Dana Fritz and published by University of New Mexico Press. This book was released on 2017-10-01 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a new approach to environmental photography, Dana Fritz explores the world’s largest enclosed landscapes: Arizona’s Biosphere 2, Cornwall’s Eden Project, and Nebraska’s Lied Jungle and Desert Dome at the Henry Doorly Zoo. In these vivaria, plants are grown amid carefully constructed representations of the natural world to entertain and educate tourists while also supporting scientific research. Together, these architectural and engineering marvels stand as working symbols of our complex relationship with the environment. Giant terraria require human control of temperature, humidity, irrigation, insects, weeds, and other conditions to create otherwise impossible ecosystems. While technical demands inform the design of these spaces, the juxtapositions of natural and artificial elements generate striking visual paradoxes that can go unnoticed. Here Fritz turns away from visitors’ prepared sight lines, revealing alternate views that dispel the illusion of natural conditions. Inviting questions about what it means to create and contain landscapes, Terraria Gigantica inspires contemplation of our ecological future.
Download or read book Robots in Space written by Roger D. Launius and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2008-02-11 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2008 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine Given the near incomprehensible enormity of the universe, it appears almost inevitable that humankind will one day find a planet that appears to be much like the Earth. This discovery will no doubt reignite the lure of interplanetary travel. Will we be up to the task? And, given our limited resources, biological constraints, and the general hostility of space, what shape should we expect such expeditions to take? In Robots in Space, Roger Launius and Howard McCurdy tackle these seemingly fanciful questions with rigorous scholarship and disciplined imagination, jumping comfortably among the worlds of rocketry, engineering, public policy, and science fantasy to expound upon the possibilities and improbabilities involved in trekking across the Milky Way and beyond. They survey the literature—fictional as well as academic studies; outline the progress of space programs in the United States and other nations; and assess the current state of affairs to offer a conclusion startling only to those who haven't spent time with Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke: to traverse the cosmos, humans must embrace and entwine themselves with advanced robotic technologies. Their discussion is as entertaining as it is edifying and their assertions are as sound as they are fantastical. Rather than asking us to suspend disbelief, Robots in Space demands that we accept facts as they evolve.
Download or read book Bringing the Biosphere Home written by Mitchell Thomashow and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2001-10-26 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide for understanding the ecological and existential aspects of global environmental change. This book shows how to make global environmental problems more tangible, so that they become an integral part of everyday awareness. At its core is a simple assumption: that the best way to learn to perceive the biosphere is to pay close attention to our immediate surroundings. Through local natural history observations, imagination and memory, and spiritual contemplation, we develop a place-based environmental view that can be expanded to encompass the biosphere. Interweaving global change science, personal narrative, and commentary on a wide range of scientific and literary works, the book explores both the ecological and existential aspects of urgent issues such as the loss of biodiversity and global climate change. Written in a warm, engaging style, Bringing the Biosphere Home considers the perceptual connections between the local and global, how the ecological news of the community is of interest to the world, and how the global movement of people, species, and weather systems affects the local community. It shows how global environmental change can become the province of numerous educational initiatives—from the classroom to the Internet, from community forums to international conferences, from the backyard to the biosphere. It explains important scientific concepts in clear, nontechnical language and provides dozens of ideas for learning how to practice biospheric perception.
Download or read book Primary Productivity of the Biosphere written by H. Lieth and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The period since World War II, and especially the last decade influenced by the International Biological Program, has seen enormous growth in research on the function of ecosystems. The same period has seen an exponential' rise in environmental problems including the capacity of the Earth to support man's population. The concern extends to man's effects on the "biosphere"-the film of living organisms on the Earth's surface that supports man. The common theme of ecologic research and environmental concerns is primary production the binding of sunlight energy into organic matter by plants that supports all life. Many results from the IBP remain to be synthesized, but enough data are available from that program and other research to develop a convincing sum mary of the primary production of the biosphere-the purpose of this book. The book had its origin in the parallel interests of the two editors and Gene E. Likens, which led them to prepare a symposium on the topic at the Second Biological Congress of the American Institute of Biological Sciences in Miami, Florida, October 24, 1971. Revisions of the papers presented at that symposium appear as Chapters 2, 8, 9, 10, and 15 in this book. We have added other chapters that complement this core; these include discussion and evaluation of methods for measuring productivity and regional production, current findings on tropical productivity, and models of primary productivity.
Download or read book The Terranauts written by T. Coraghessan Boyle and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sealed inside a glass enclosure designed as a prototype for a possible off-Earth colony, eight Terranauts in the 1990s Arizona desert test their skills in five biome environments that they must protect from skeptics who would sabotage the mission.
Download or read book Harvesting the Biosphere written by Vaclav Smil and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-12-21 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An interdisciplinary and quantitative account of human claims on the biosphere's stores of living matter, from prehistoric hunting to modern energy production. The biosphere—the Earth's thin layer of life—dates from nearly four billion years ago, when the first simple organisms appeared. Many species have exerted enormous influence on the biosphere's character and productivity, but none has transformed the Earth in so many ways and on such a scale as Homo sapiens. In Harvesting the Biosphere, Vaclav Smil offers an interdisciplinary and quantitative account of human claims on the biosphere's stores of living matter, from prehistory to the present day. Smil examines all harvests—from prehistoric man's hunting of megafauna to modern crop production—and all uses of harvested biomass, including energy, food, and raw materials. Without harvesting of the biomass, Smil points out, there would be no story of human evolution and advancing civilization; but at the same time, the increasing extent and intensity of present-day biomass harvests are changing the very foundations of civilization's well-being. In his detailed and comprehensive account, Smil presents the best possible quantifications of past and current global losses in order to assess the evolution and extent of biomass harvests. Drawing on the latest work in disciplines ranging from anthropology to environmental science, Smil offers a valuable long-term, planet-wide perspective on human-caused environmental change.
Download or read book The Biosphere and the Bioregion written by Cheryll Glotfelty and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-07-17 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bioregionalism asks us to reimagine ourselves and the places where we live in ecological terms and to harmonize human activities with the natural systems that sustain life. As one of the originators of the concept of bioregionalism, Peter Berg (1937-2011) is a founding figure of contemporary environmental thought. The Biosphere and the Bioregion: Essential Writings of Peter Berg introduces readers to the biospheric vision and post-environmental genius of Berg. From books and essays to published interviews, this selection of writings represents Berg's bioregional vision and its global, local, urban, and rural applications. The Biosphere and the Bioregion provides a highly accessible introduction to bioregional philosophy, making Berg's paradigm available as a guiding vision and practical "greenprint" for the twenty-first century. This valuable compilation lays the groundwork for future research by offering the first-ever comprehensive bibliography of Berg's publications and should be of interest to students and scholars in the interdisciplinary fields of environmental humanities, environment and sustainability studies, as well as political ecology, environmental sociology and anthropology.
Download or read book The Evolution of the Biosphere written by M.I. Budyko and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE STUDY OF THE BIOSPHERE The term 'biosphere' first appeared in the works of the French biologist 1.-B. Lamarck and the Austrian geologist E. Suess in the 19th century. In the 20th century, the study of the biosphere attracted considerable attention, largely due to the research of V. I. Vernadsky (1863- 1945). The results Qf Vernadsky's investigations have appeared in a number of publications, including the monograph The Biosphere published in 1926. This work consists of two parts, The Biosphere in Cosmos' and The Zone of Life', written in a form of speculation and reflection that is rarely used in modern studies. This work concerns the distinguishing properties of the space occupied by organisms and the exceptional importance of the activities of these organisms in the formation of their environment. In this and subsequent studies, Vernadsky has laid the foundations of the science of the biosphere, which today plays an important role in th.c many branches of science concerned with the Earth. Several terms have been suggested for the science of the biosphere, including global ecology (a discipline studying the global ecological system, whose meaning is close to that of the biosphere). One of the most prominent predecessors of Vernadsky was his teacher V.
Download or read book The Biosphere written by Vladimir I. Vernadsky and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Vladimir Vernadsky was a brilliant and prescient scholar-a true scientific visionary who saw the deep connections between life on Earth and the rest of the planet and understood the profound implications for life as a cosmic phenomenon." -DAVID H. GRINSPOON, AUTHOR OF VENUS REVEALED "The Biosphere should be required reading for all entry level students in earth and planetary sciences." -ERIC D. SCHNEIDER, AUTHOR OF INTO THE COOL: THE NEW THERMODYNAMICS OF CREATIVE DESTRUCTION
