FYI,

"Texas Company Wants to Sell Biosphere 2"
Associated Press
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&cid=1894&e=2&u=/ap/biosphere_sale

: The company that owns Biosphere 2 Center, 3.1 glass-enclosed acres
: designed to simulate the Earth's environment, has put the site up
: for sale.

: The company is also selling 70 other buildings on the center's
: 140-acre campus 16 miles north of Tucson, said Christopher Bannon,
: general manager of Decisions Investment Corp. of Fort Worth, Texas.

: "We'd love to see the Biosphere 2 used as a research activity, but
: we know that may not be the end result," he said last week.

: Texas billionaire Ed Bass, president of Decisions Investment, spent
: more than $200 million to build Biosphere 2 in the 1980s as a
: prototype for a space colony.

: The closed ecological site 16 miles north of Tucson contained
: miniatures of Earth's rainforest, ocean, desert and other
: environmental features.

: In 1991, eight "biospherians" were sealed inside for a two-year
: stay. But the project was plagued by rising costs and other
: setbacks and Columbia University assumed responsibility for the
: site under a management agreement, turning it into a research and
: education facility.

: The relationship with Columbia ended in September 2003 and
: Biosphere 2 has been open as a tourist destination.

Mark Reiff