The Human Experiment: Two Years and Twenty Minutes Inside Biosphere 2

I found the Jayne Poynter's book to be very interesting both for her personal "lead up" to how she came to be on the Biosphere crew, as well as the drama of the 2 years inside -- all the problems they had, both technically and psychologically. It's too bad the media spent so much time trying to find out why something might be a "fake" (for lack of a better term) with Biosphere II rather than trying to appreciate the enormous magnitude of the project and it's intent. As I understand it, Biosphere II sits largely unused today. I certainly hope that a university or two will get involved to keep the facility operating. There's a lot to be learned, and I suspect the majority of the cost is already spent.

Jane Poynter gives a very honest story of her involvement in the group that conceived and built the Biosphere 2, where she came from and where the group was coming from. Jane obviously knows her Biospherics, the book has Bibliography and Index for easy reference like a scientific paper, the Science almost reads like a hard techno-thriller, Low Oxygen, Failing Power, Constant food shortage. This combined with the tensions between the people inside and outside of the biosphere makes a very intense story, where the reader gets drawn into the drama and emotional stress. That the story is real, and told by one of the participants is astounding. "No-one can make this up" Written in 2005 Jane Poynter has the distance to the events to make the story balanced, it is not one sided, she objectively describes the events, and tries to make an objective assessment of her own feelings at the time. The book is not a personal vendetta against other people in the Biosphere 2 project. Overall a 5 star book

First, I am not a professional reviewer or writer. I am an like everyone else who likes to read a good book. I liked this book for a few good reasons. It was easy to read and follow. I didn't get tired from reading it. At times I would get so engrossed in reading it that time would seem to fly by. This book gives you the inside story of the Biosphere 2 experiment. It tells about the relationships of the people involved and some of the History leading up to the experiment. It even gives you a bit of the science behind the Biosphere told in a way that a non technical person can understand. It tells about the fun times and some of the bad times even some of the funny times. It is certainly not a dry read. I think that Jane Poynter did a good job writing this book. It certainly answers some of the questions raised in the past about the Biosphere 2 experiment. It is a good read, I recommend it. I own it, I am going to keep it and I look forward to reading it again.

This is a revealing account of life inside Biosphere 2. The autobiography follows the author, Jane Poynter from her childhood in England to the present day. In addition to interesting tech tidbits about the building and functionality, she shares about relationships with the other "inmates" of Bio2. Jane explains the science behind this unique accomplishment in an interesting and non-boring way. The most exciting part for me in this book was imagining them doing this giant science experiment on Mars, and definitely the behind the scenes lowdown on the creators and participants of this experiment. Highly recommend.

The Human Experiment was a pleasant surprise on several counts. First, it is a very "good read"; so good in fact that I read it straight through in one sitting. Second, there is enough technical detail that those interested in such things can get a good sense of the technical issues inherent in the design and operation of Biosphere 2, yet non-technical readers will not be so overwhelmed that they will fail to grasp the overall significance of the experiment. Third, the social issues, which are really the strongest focus of the book, are described with real passion, yet with more than enough objectivity to leave one comfortable with the overall accuracy of the account. The author admits her own biases with sufficient sincerity that her basic integrity seems self-evident. And, finally, the philosophical issues that underlay the design and analysis of the experiment are laid out in a very engrossing fashion. This last point may sound rather dry and of limited practical interest, but in fact such questions are central to our very ability to understand anything at all of a scientific nature. Anyone who cares about the basic validity of any scientific activity will find the detailed examples in this book well worth the trouble of reading. One is also struck by the sheer ambition of the project. It not only cost 250 million dollars, which is an obvious measure of the scope, but anyone with even a little knowledge of biology and chemistry can see clearly how much needed to be fit into a structure of less than 150,000 square feet. This is smaller than an average grocery warehouse, yet there was essentially everything needed to make up a completely closed ecosystem. There were a couple of oversights, to be sure, and that is to be expected in any pioneering technical project, but in retrospect the vast majority of the design worked as intended, which is quite amazing, and especially so to anyone who has ever been involved in a high-tech project of any kind. In addition, the project "bug list" was not only short, but all of the design errors were susceptible to straightforward correction. In other words, the overall design was generally correct and robust. Very impressive indeed. In short, this book will likely appeal to anyone with an interest in any or all of the following: ecology, the environment, manned spaceflight, engineering, human social dynamics, philosophy of science, or simple adventure.