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138-410: In a general sense, biospheres are any closed, self-regulating systems containing ecosystems. This includes artificial biospheres such as Biosphere 2 and BIOS-3 , and potentially ones on other planets or moons . The term "biosphere" was coined in 1875 by geologist Eduard Suess , who defined it as the place on Earth's surface where life dwells. While the concept has a geological origin, it

276-560: A "flow-through" system, and halted closed system research. They manipulated carbon dioxide levels for global warming research, and injected desired amounts of carbon dioxide, venting as needed. During Columbia's tenure, students from Columbia and other colleges and universities would often spend one semester at the site. Research during Columbia's tenure demonstrated the devastating impacts on coral reefs from elevated atmospheric CO 2 and acidification that will result from continued global climate change . Frank Press, former president of

414-481: A 2,500-square-meter (27,000 sq ft) agricultural system and a human habitat with living spaces, laboratories and workshops. Below ground was an extensive part of the technical infrastructure. Heating and cooling water circulated through independent piping systems and passive solar input through the glass space frame panels covering most of the facility, and electrical power was supplied into Biosphere 2 from an onsite natural gas power plant. Biosphere 2

552-425: A basis for new calculations, in the form of radiometric dating . Ernest Rutherford and Frederick Soddy jointly had continued their work on radioactive materials and concluded that radioactivity was caused by a spontaneous transmutation of atomic elements. In radioactive decay, an element breaks down into another, lighter element, releasing alpha, beta, or gamma radiation in the process. They also determined that

690-579: A billion years old. The oldest such minerals analyzed to date—small crystals of zircon from the Jack Hills of Western Australia —are at least 4.404 billion years old. Calcium–aluminium-rich inclusions —the oldest known solid constituents within meteorites that are formed within the Solar System —are 4.567 billion years old, giving a lower limit for the age of the Solar System . It

828-461: A constant volume would create, the structure had large diaphragms kept in domes called "lungs" or variable volume structures. Since opening a window was not an option, the structure also required a sophisticated system to regulate temperatures within desired parameters, which varied for the different biomic areas. Though cooling was the largest energy need, heating had to be supplied in the winter and closed loop pipes and air handlers were key parts of

966-828: A degree in Metallurgical-Mining Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. Roy Walford received his doctorate of medicine from the University of Chicago and taught at UCLA as a Professor of Pathology for 35 years. Mark Nelson obtained his Ph.D. in 1998 under Professor H.T. Odum in ecological engineering further developing the constructed wetlands used to treat and recycle sewage in Biosphere 2, to coral reef protection along

1104-677: A depth of 10,000 m (33,000 ft; 6.2 mi) in the Mariana Trench , the deepest spot in the Earth's oceans. In fact, single-celled life forms have been found in the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, by the Challenger Deep , at depths of 11,034 m (36,201 ft; 6.856 mi). Other researchers reported related studies that microorganisms thrive inside rocks up to 580 m (1,900 ft; 0.36 mi) below

1242-454: A few years of the discovery of radioactivity and provided a basis for constructing techniques of radiometric dating. The pioneers of radioactivity were chemist Bertram B. Boltwood and physicist Rutherford. Boltwood had conducted studies of radioactive materials as a consultant, and when Rutherford lectured at Yale in 1904, Boltwood was inspired to describe the relationships between elements in various decay series. Late in 1904, Rutherford took

1380-476: A hybrid of these); two sows and one boar Ossabaw dwarf pigs ; and tilapia fish grown in a rice and azolla pond system originating millennia ago in China. A strategy of "species-packing" was practiced to ensure that food webs and ecological function could be maintained if some species did not survive. The fog desert area became more chaparral in character due to condensation from the space frame. The savannah

1518-417: A leak rate of less than 10% per year. Without such tight closure, the slow decline of oxygen which occurred at a rate of less than 1 ⁄ 4 % per month during the first two-year closure experiment might not have been detected. During the day, the heat from the sun caused the air inside to expand and during the night it cooled and contracted. To avoid having to deal with the huge forces that maintaining

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1656-443: A mini biospheric system without harming Earth's biosphere. Its seven biome areas were a 1,900-square-meter (20,000 sq ft) rainforest , an 850-square-meter (9,100 sq ft) ocean with a coral reef , a 450-square-meter (4,800 sq ft) mangrove wetlands, a 1,300-square-metre (14,000 sq ft) savannah grassland, a 1,400-square-meter (15,000 sq ft) fog desert , and two anthropogenic biomes:

1794-401: A native Martian biosphere—as part of the topic of biospherics. Currently, the total number of living cells on the Earth is estimated to be 10; the total number since the beginning of Earth, as 10, and the total number for the entire time of a habitable planet Earth as 10. This is much larger than the total number of estimated stars (and Earth-like planets) in the observable universe as 10,

1932-855: A number which is more than all the grains of beach sand on planet Earth; but less than the total number of atoms estimated in the observable universe as 10; and the estimated total number of stars in an inflationary universe (observed and unobserved), as 10. The earliest evidence for life on Earth includes biogenic graphite found in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks from Western Greenland and microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone from Western Australia . More recently, in 2015, "remains of biotic life " were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. In 2017, putative fossilized microorganisms (or microfossils ) were announced to have been discovered in hydrothermal vent precipitates in

2070-537: A particular isotope of a radioactive element decays into another element at a distinctive rate. This rate is given in terms of a "half-life", or the amount of time it takes half of a mass of that radioactive material to break down into its "decay product". Some radioactive materials have short half-lives; some have long half-lives. Uranium and thorium have long half-lives and so persist in Earth's crust, but radioactive elements with short half-lives have generally disappeared. This suggested that it might be possible to measure

2208-531: A place that is open to the public. Biosphere 2 is one of two enclosed artificial ecosystems in the Americas that are open to the public, the other being the Montreal Biodome . The Biosphere 2 project was launched in 1984 by businessman and billionaire philanthropist Ed Bass and systems ecologist John P. Allen , with Bass providing US$ 150 million in funding until 1991. Bass and Allen had met in

2346-415: A plant mass increase calculated to be 20 short tons (18,000 kg). The release rate of that soil carbon as carbon dioxide by respiration of soil microbes was an unknown that the Biosphere 2 experiment was designed to reveal. Subsequent research showed that Biosphere 2's farm soils had reached a more stable ratio of carbon and nitrogen, lowering the rate of CO 2 release, by 1998. The respiration rate

2484-412: A precision of as little as 1% margin for error. Statistics for several meteorites that have undergone isochron dating are as follows: The Canyon Diablo meteorite was used because it is both large and representative of a particularly rare type of meteorite that contains sulfide minerals (particularly troilite , FeS), metallic nickel - iron alloys, plus silicate minerals. This is important because

2622-469: A project failure by definition. In November 1992, the hungry Biospherians began eating seed stocks that had not been grown inside the Biosphere 2. Poynter made Chris Helms, PR Director for the enterprise, aware of this. She was promptly dismissed by Margret Augustine, CEO of Space Biospheres Ventures, and told to come out of the biosphere. This order was, however, never carried out. Poynter writes that she simply decided to stay put, correctly reasoning that

2760-565: A prominent geological journal, the geological community had little interest in radioactivity. Boltwood gave up work on radiometric dating and went on to investigate other decay series. Rutherford remained mildly curious about the issue of the age of Earth but did little work on it. Robert Strutt tinkered with Rutherford's helium method until 1910 and then ceased. However, Strutt's student Arthur Holmes became interested in radiometric dating and continued to work on it after everyone else had given up. Holmes focused on lead dating because he regarded

2898-482: A short age for Earth. For biologists, even 100 million years seemed much too short to be plausible. In Charles Darwin 's theory of evolution , the process of random heritable variation with cumulative selection requires great durations of time, and Darwin stated that Thomson's estimates did not appear to provide enough time. According to modern biology, the total evolutionary history from the beginning of life to today has taken place since 3.5 to 3.8 billion years ago ,

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3036-486: A successful analogue to the Everglades area of Florida where the mangroves and marsh plants were collected. Biosphere 2, because of its small size and buffers, and concentration of organic materials and life, had greater fluctuations and more rapid biogeochemical cycles than are found in Earth's biosphere. Most of the introduced vertebrate species and virtually all of the pollinating insects died, though there

3174-506: A team. That was the nature of the factionalism... but despite that, we ran the damn thing and we cooperated totally." The factions inside the bubble formed from a rift and power struggle between the joint venture partners on how the science should proceed, as biospherics or as specialist ecosystem studies (perceived as reductionist). The faction that included Poynter felt strongly that increasing research should be prioritized over degree of closure. The other faction backed project management and

3312-647: Is an indication of the effect of both Charles Darwin and Matthew F. Maury on the Earth sciences . The biosphere's ecological context comes from the 1920s (see Vladimir I. Vernadsky ), preceding the 1935 introduction of the term " ecosystem " by Sir Arthur Tansley (see ecology history ). Vernadsky defined ecology as the science of the biosphere. It is an interdisciplinary concept for integrating astronomy , geophysics , meteorology , biogeography , evolution , geology , geochemistry , hydrology and, generally speaking, all life and Earth sciences. Geochemists define

3450-526: Is built upon a modern understanding of cosmochemistry built up over decades of research. Most geological samples from Earth are unable to give a direct date of the formation of Earth from the solar nebula because Earth has undergone differentiation into the core, mantle, and crust, and this has then undergone a long history of mixing and unmixing of these sample reservoirs by plate tectonics , weathering and hydrothermal circulation . All of these processes may adversely affect isotopic dating mechanisms because

3588-430: Is certainly a more robust hypothesis than that which assumes a terrestrial rock has retained its original composition. Nevertheless, ancient Archaean lead ores of galena have been used to date the formation of Earth as these represent the earliest formed lead-only minerals on the planet and record the earliest homogeneous lead–lead isotope systems on the planet. These have returned age dates of 4.54 billion years with

3726-427: Is hypothesised that the accretion of Earth began soon after the formation of the calcium-aluminium-rich inclusions and the meteorites. Because the time this accretion process took is not yet known, and predictions from different accretion models range from a few million up to about 100 million years, the difference between the age of Earth and of the oldest rocks is difficult to determine. It is also difficult to determine

3864-470: Is interpreted as the duration of formation of the solar nebula and its collapse into the solar disk to form the Sun and the planets. This 50 million year time span allows for accretion of the planets from the original solar dust and meteorites. The Moon, as another extraterrestrial body that has not undergone plate tectonics and that has no atmosphere, provides quite precise age dates from the samples returned from

4002-430: Is to serve as a center for research, outreach, teaching, and lifelong learning about Earth, its living systems, and its place in the universe. It is a 3.14-acre (1.27-hectare) structure originally built to be an artificial, materially closed ecological system , or vivarium . It remains the largest closed ecological system ever created. Constructed between 1987 and 1991, Biosphere 2 was originally meant to demonstrate

4140-647: The Comte du Buffon tried to obtain a value for the age of Earth using an experiment: he created a small globe that resembled Earth in composition and then measured its rate of cooling. This led him to estimate that Earth was about 75,000 years old. Other naturalists used these hypotheses to construct a history of Earth , though their timelines were inexact as they did not know how long it took to lay down stratigraphic layers. In 1830, geologist Charles Lyell , developing ideas found in James Hutton 's works, popularized

4278-489: The Nuvvuagittuq Belt of Quebec, Canada that were as old as 4.28 billion years, the oldest record of life on earth, suggesting "an almost instantaneous emergence of life" after ocean formation 4.4 billion years ago , and not long after the formation of the Earth 4.54 billion years ago. According to biologist Stephen Blair Hedges , "If life arose relatively quickly on Earth ... then it could be common in

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4416-403: The universe ." Every part of the planet, from the polar ice caps to the equator , features life of some kind. Recent advances in microbiology have demonstrated that microbes live deep beneath the Earth's terrestrial surface and that the total mass of microbial life in so-called "uninhabitable zones" may, in biomass , exceed all animal and plant life on the surface. The actual thickness of

4554-473: The "bankers" who suddenly took over "knew nothing technically or scientifically, and little about the biospherian crew". Four days later, the captain Norberto Alvarez-Romo (by then married to Biosphere 2 chief executive Margaret Augustine) precipitously left the Biosphere for a "family emergency" after his wife's suspension. He was replaced by Bernd Zabel, who had been nominated as captain of

4692-409: The 17th century was one of the first naturalists to appreciate the connection between fossil remains and strata. His observations led him to formulate important stratigraphic concepts (i.e., the " law of superposition " and the " principle of original horizontality "). In the 1790s, William Smith hypothesized that if two layers of rock at widely differing locations contained similar fossils, then it

4830-505: The 1930s, isotopes would be shown to have nuclei with differing numbers of the neutral particles known as " neutrons ". In that same year, other research was published establishing the rules for radioactive decay, allowing more precise identification of decay series. Many geologists felt these new discoveries made radiometric dating so complicated as to be worthless. Holmes felt that they gave him tools to improve his techniques, and he plodded ahead with his research, publishing before and after

4968-846: The 1970s at the Synergia Ranch , a counterculture community led by Allen, who advocated Buckminster Fuller 's " Spaceship Earth " concept and explored the idea of biospheres as a refuge from disasters such as nuclear war. Several other former members of Synergia Ranch also joined the Biosphere 2 project. Construction was carried out between 1987 and 1991 by Space Biosphere Ventures, a joint venture whose principal officers were John P. Allen, inventor and executive chairman; Margaret Augustine, CEO; Marie Harding, vice-president of finance; Abigail Alling, vice president of research; Mark Nelson, director of space and environmental applications, William F. Dempster, director of system engineering, and Norberto Alvarez-Romo, vice president of mission control. It

5106-658: The Apollo missions. Rocks returned from the Moon have been dated at a maximum of 4.51 billion years old. Martian meteorites that have landed upon Earth have also been dated to around 4.5 billion years old by lead–lead dating . Lunar samples, since they have not been disturbed by weathering, plate tectonics or material moved by organisms, can also provide dating by direct electron microscope examination of cosmic ray tracks. The accumulation of dislocations generated by high energy cosmic ray particle impacts provides another confirmation of

5244-500: The Bannon & Co. investment banking team from Beverly Hills, California, to run Space Biospheres Ventures. The project was put into receivership and an outside management team was installed for the receiver to turn around the floundering project. The reason for the dispute was threefold. Mismanagement of the mission had caused terrible publicity, financial mismanagement and lack of research. People alleged gross financial mismanagement of

5382-571: The Biosphere 2 Science Advisory Committee, chaired by Tom Lovejoy of the Smithsonian Institution, reported: "The committee is in agreement that the conception and construction of Biosphere 2 were acts of vision and courage. The scale of Biosphere 2 is unique and Biosphere 2 is already providing unexpected scientific results not possible through other means (notably the documented, unexpected decline in atmospheric oxygen levels.) Biosphere 2 will make important scientific contributions in

5520-486: The Biosphere. Although he later changed his opinion, acknowledging the unique scope of this experiment and contributed to its success as a consultant, in a 1983 interview (8 years before the start of the experiment), Prance said, "I was attracted to the Institute of Ecotechnics because funds for research were being cut and the institute seemed to have a lot of money which it was willing to spend freely. Along with others, I

5658-402: The Earth's biosphere, including soil , hot springs , inside rocks at least 19 km (12 mi) deep underground, and at least 64 km (40 mi) high in the atmosphere. Marine life under many forms has been found in the deepest reaches of the world ocean while much of the deep sea remains to be explored. Under certain test conditions, microorganisms have been observed to survive

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5796-469: The Earth's crust. The rate at which the temperature increases depends on many factors, including the type of crust (continental vs. oceanic), rock type, geographic location, etc. The greatest known temperature at which microbial life can exist is 122 °C (252 °F) ( Methanopyrus kandleri Strain 116). It is likely that the limit of life in the " deep biosphere " is defined by temperature rather than absolute depth. On 20 August 2014, scientists confirmed

5934-506: The First World War. His work was generally ignored until the 1920s, though in 1917 Joseph Barrell , a professor of geology at Yale, redrew geological history as it was understood at the time to conform to Holmes's findings in radiometric dating. Barrell's research determined that the layers of strata had not all been laid down at the same rate, and so current rates of geological change could not be used to provide accurate timelines of

6072-529: The National Academy of Sciences, described these interactions between atmosphere and ocean, taking advantage of the highly controllable ocean mesocosm of Biosphere 2, as the "first unequivocal experimental confirmation of the human impact on the planet". Age of the Earth The age of Earth is estimated to be 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years (4.54 × 10 years ± 1%). This age may represent

6210-479: The SBV managers were not themselves degreed scientists, this called into question the entire validity of the project, even though some of the world's best scientists were working vigorously on the project's design and operation. The critique was not fair. Since leaving Biosphere 2, I have run a small business for ten years that sent experiments on the shuttle and to the space station, and is designing life support systems for

6348-583: The Yucatán coast where the corals were collected. Linda Leigh obtained her PhD with a dissertation on biodiversity and the Biosphere 2 rainforest working with Odum. Abigail Alling, Mark van Thillo and Sally Silverstone helped start the Biosphere Foundation where they worked on coral reef and marine conservation and sustainable agricultural systems. Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum co-founded Paragon Space Development Corporation which has studied

6486-459: The age of Earth 's accretion , or core formation, or of the material from which Earth formed. This dating is based on evidence from radiometric age-dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the radiometric ages of the oldest-known terrestrial material and lunar samples . Following the development of radiometric age-dating in the early 20th century, measurements of lead in uranium-rich minerals showed that some were in excess of

6624-425: The age of Earth by determining the relative proportions of radioactive materials in geological samples. In reality, radioactive elements do not always decay into nonradioactive ("stable") elements directly, instead, decaying into other radioactive elements that have their own half-lives and so on, until they reach a stable element . These " decay chains ", such as the uranium-radium and thorium series, were known within

6762-466: The age of a rock sample by measuring its concentration of helium. He dated a rock in his possession to an age of 40 million years by this technique. Rutherford wrote of addressing a meeting of the Royal Institution in 1904: I came into the room, which was half dark, and presently spotted Lord Kelvin in the audience and realized that I was in trouble at the last part of my speech dealing with

6900-426: The age of the Earth, where my views conflicted with his. To my relief, Kelvin fell fast asleep, but as I came to the important point, I saw the old bird sit up, open an eye, and cock a baleful glance at me! Then a sudden inspiration came, and I said, "Lord Kelvin had limited the age of the Earth, provided no new source was discovered. That prophetic utterance refers to what we are now considering tonight, radium!" Behold!

7038-564: The age of the oldest terrestrial rock gives a minimum for the age of Earth, assuming that no rock has been intact for longer than Earth itself. The discovery of radioactivity introduced another factor in the calculation. After Henri Becquerel 's initial discovery in 1896, Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the radioactive elements polonium and radium in 1898; and in 1903, Pierre Curie and Albert Laborde announced that radium produces enough heat to melt its own weight in ice in less than an hour. Geologists quickly realized that this upset

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7176-482: The amount of time which passed since the last universal ancestor of all living organisms as shown by geological dating. In a lecture in 1869, Darwin's great advocate, Thomas Henry Huxley , attacked Thomson's calculations, suggesting they appeared precise in themselves but were based on faulty assumptions. The physicist Hermann von Helmholtz (in 1856) and astronomer Simon Newcomb (in 1892) contributed their own calculations of 22 and 18 million years, respectively, to

7314-401: The assumptions underlying most calculations of the age of Earth. These had assumed that the original heat of Earth and the Sun had dissipated steadily into space, but radioactive decay meant that this heat had been continually replenished. George Darwin and John Joly were the first to point this out, in 1903. Radioactivity, which had overthrown the old calculations, yielded a bonus by providing

7452-521: The astronomer George H. Darwin , proposed that Earth and Moon had broken apart in their early days when they were both molten. He calculated the amount of time it would have taken for tidal friction to give Earth its current 24-hour day. His value of 56 million years was additional evidence that Thomson was on the right track. The last estimate Kelvin gave, in 1897, was: "that it was more than 20 and less than 40 million year old, and probably much nearer 20 than 40". In 1899 and 1900, John Joly calculated

7590-399: The biomes developed), group dynamic tensions among the resident crew, outside politics, and a power struggle over management and direction of the project. The second closure experiment achieved total food sufficiency and did not require injection of oxygen. In June 1994, during the middle of the second experiment, the managing company, Space Biosphere Ventures, was dissolved, and the facility

7728-406: The biosphere as being the total sum of living organisms (the " biomass " or " biota " as referred to by biologists and ecologists). In this sense, the biosphere is but one of four separate components of the geochemical model, the other three being geosphere , hydrosphere , and atmosphere . When these four component spheres are combined into one system, it is known as the ecosphere . This term

7866-842: The biosphere on Earth is difficult to measure. Birds typically fly at altitudes as high as 1,800 m (5,900 ft; 1.1 mi) and fish live as much as 8,372 m (27,467 ft; 5.202 mi) underwater in the Puerto Rico Trench . There are more extreme examples for life on the planet: Rüppell's vulture has been found at altitudes of 11,300 metres (37,100 feet; 7.0 miles); bar-headed geese migrate at altitudes of at least 8,300 m (27,200 ft; 5.2 mi); yaks live at elevations as high as 5,400 m (17,700 ft; 3.4 mi) above sea level; mountain goats live up to 3,050 m (10,010 ft; 1.90 mi). Herbivorous animals at these elevations depend on lichens, grasses, and herbs. Life forms live in every part of

8004-591: The biosphere site ... with two investment bankers hired by Mr. Bass ... They arrived with a temporary restraining order to take over direct control of the project ... With them were 6-8 police officers hired by the Bass organization ... They immediately changed locks on the offices ... All communication systems were changed (telephone and access codes), and [we] were prevented from receiving any data regarding safety, operations, and research of Biosphere 2." Alling emphasized several times in her letter that

8142-412: The biospherians' metabolism became more efficient at extracting nutrients from their food as an adaptation to the low-calorie, high nutrient diet. Some of the domestic animals that were included in the agricultural area during the first mission included: four African pygmy goat does and one billy; 35 hens and three roosters (a mix of Indian jungle fowl ( Gallus gallus ), Japanese silky bantam , and

8280-539: The chance of contamination. An age of 4.55 ± 0.07 billion years, very close to today's accepted age, was determined by Clair Cameron Patterson using uranium–lead isotope dating (specifically lead–lead dating ) on several meteorites including the Canyon Diablo meteorite and published in 1956. The quoted age of Earth is derived, in part, from the Canyon Diablo meteorite for several important reasons and

8418-607: The complaint "down her throat". Bannon attributed this to "hard feelings and broken dreams". At the end of the trial, the court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and ordered Space Biosphere Ventures to pay them $ 600,000. A special issue of the Ecological Engineering journal edited by Marino and Howard T. Odum and published in 1999 as "Biosphere 2: Research Past and Present" represents the most comprehensive assemblage of collected papers and findings from Biosphere 2. The papers range from calibrated models that describe

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8556-409: The concept that the features of Earth were in perpetual change, eroding and reforming continuously, and the rate of this change was roughly constant. This was a challenge to the traditional view, which saw the history of Earth as dominated by intermittent catastrophes . Many naturalists were influenced by Lyell to become " uniformitarians " who believed that changes were constant and uniform. In 1862,

8694-407: The corals, manipulating calcium carbonate and pH levels to prevent the ocean becoming too acidic, and by installing an improved protein skimmer to supplement the algae turf scrubber system originally installed to remove excess nutrients. The mangrove area developed rapidly but with less understory than a typical wetland possibly because of reduced light levels. Nevertheless, it was judged to be

8832-398: The debate: they independently calculated the amount of time it would take for the Sun to condense down to its current diameter and brightness from the nebula of gas and dust from which it was born. Their values were consistent with Thomson's calculations. However, they assumed that the Sun was only glowing from the heat of its gravitational contraction . The process of solar nuclear fusion

8970-638: The desert and savannah through control of irrigation water, cutting and storing biomass to sequester carbon , and utilizing all potential planting areas with fast-growing species to increase system photosynthesis, wouldn't be enough to sustain human life. In November 1991, investigative reporting in The Village Voice alleged that the crew had secretly installed the CO 2 scrubber device, and claimed that this violated Biosphere 2's advertised goal of recycling all materials naturally. Others pointed out there

9108-593: The die-hards in the geological community stubbornly resisted. They had never cared for attempts by physicists to intrude in their domain, and had successfully ignored them so far. The growing weight of evidence finally tilted the balance in 1931, when the National Research Council of the US National Academy of Sciences decided to resolve the question of the age of Earth by appointing a committee to investigate. Holmes, being one of

9246-486: The energy system. An energy center on site provided electricity and heated and cooled water, employing natural gas and backup generators, ammonia chillers and water cooling towers. The first closed mission lasted from September 26, 1991, to September 26, 1993. The crew were: medical doctor and researcher Roy Walford , Jane Poynter , Taber MacCallum , Mark Nelson , Sally Silverstone, Abigail Alling, Mark Van Thillo, and Linda Leigh. The agricultural system produced 83% of

9384-459: The exact age of the oldest rocks on Earth, exposed at the surface, as they are aggregates of minerals of possibly different ages. Studies of strata —the layering of rocks and soil—gave naturalists an appreciation that Earth may have been through many changes during its existence. These layers often contained fossilized remains of unknown creatures, leading some to interpret a progression of organisms from layer to layer. Nicolas Steno in

9522-462: The existence of microorganisms living 800 m (2,600 ft; 0.50 mi) below the ice of Antarctica . Earth's biosphere is divided into several biomes , inhabited by fairly similar flora and fauna . On land, biomes are separated primarily by latitude . Terrestrial biomes lying within the Arctic and Antarctic Circles are relatively barren of plant and animal life. In contrast, most of

9660-418: The explorer/adventurer profile, with both women and men scoring very similarly to astronauts. Among the problems and miscalculations encountered in the first mission were unanticipated condensation making the "desert" too wet, population explosions of greenhouse ants and cockroaches, morning glories overgrowing the rainforest area blocking out other plants, and less sunlight (40–50% of outside light) entering

9798-481: The facility than originally anticipated. Biospherians intervened to control invasive plants when needed to preserve biodiversity, functioning as " keystone predators ". In addition, construction itself was a challenge; for example, it was difficult to manipulate the bodies of water to have waves and tidal changes. There was controversy when the public learned that the project had allowed an injured member to leave and return, carrying new material inside. The team claimed

9936-401: The facility was changed by Columbia University from a closed ecological system to a "flow-through" system where CO 2 could be manipulated at desired levels. Steve Bannon left Biosphere 2 after two years, but his departure was marked by an "abuse of process" civil lawsuit filed against Space Biosphere Ventures by the former crew members who had broken in. Leading managers of Biosphere 2 from

10074-488: The few people who was trained in radiometric dating techniques, was a committee member and in fact wrote most of the final report. Thus, Holmes' report concluded that radioactive dating was the only reliable means of pinning down a geologic time scale . Questions of bias were deflected by the great and exacting detail of the report. It described the methods used, the care with which measurements were made, and their error bars and limitations. Radiometric dating continues to be

10212-421: The fields of biogeochemical cycling, the ecology of closed ecological systems, and restoration ecology ." Columbia University assembled outside scientists to evaluate the potential of the facility after they took over management, and concluded the following: "A group of world-class scientists got together and decided the Biosphere 2 facility is an exceptional laboratory for addressing critical questions relative to

10350-476: The first crew, allegedly vandalized the project from outside, opening one double-airlock door and three single door emergency exits, leaving them open for about 15 minutes. Five panes of glass were also broken. Alling later told the Chicago Tribune that she "considered the Biosphere to be in an emergency state ... In no way was it sabotage. It was my responsibility." About 10% of the Biosphere's air

10488-486: The first mini-closed system and the first full animal life cycle in space and assisted in setting world records in high altitude descents. Questioning the credentials of the participants, Marc Cooper wrote that "the group that built, conceived, and directs the Biosphere project is not a group of high-tech researchers on the cutting edge of science but a clique of recycled theater performers that evolved out of an authoritarian—and decidedly non-scientific—personality cult". He

10626-497: The first mission but who was replaced at the last minute. Two months later, Matt Smith replaced Matt Finn. The ownership and management company Space Biospheres Ventures was dissolved on June 1, 1994. This left the scientific and business management of the mission to the interim turnaround team, who had been contracted by the financial partner, Decisions Investment Co. Mission 2 was ended prematurely on September 6, 1994. No further total system science has emerged from Biosphere 2 as

10764-475: The first step toward radiometric dating by suggesting that the alpha particles released by radioactive decay could be trapped in a rocky material as helium atoms. At the time, Rutherford was only guessing at the relationship between alpha particles and helium atoms, but he would prove the connection four years later. Soddy and Sir William Ramsay had just determined the rate at which radium produces alpha particles, and Rutherford proposed that he could determine

10902-399: The formation of the meteorite, this allowed a much more precise date of the formation of the solar disk and hence the planets than ever before. The age determined from the Canyon Diablo meteorite has been confirmed by hundreds of other age determinations, from both terrestrial samples and other meteorites. The meteorite samples, however, show a spread from 4.53 to 4.58 billion years ago. This

11040-400: The future of Earth and its environment." In December 1995, the Biosphere 2 owners transferred management to Columbia University of New York City. Columbia ran Biosphere 2 as a research site and campus until 2003. Subsequently, management reverted to the owners. In 1996, Columbia University changed the virtually airtight, materially closed structure designed for closed system research, to

11178-482: The helium method as unpromising. He performed measurements on rock samples and concluded in 1911 that the oldest (a sample from Ceylon ) was about 1.6 billion years old. These calculations were not particularly trustworthy. For example, he assumed that the samples had contained only uranium and no lead when they were formed. More important research was published in 1913. It showed that elements generally exist in multiple variants with different masses, or " isotopes ". In

11316-626: The history of Earth. Holmes' persistence finally began to pay off in 1921, when the speakers at the yearly meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science came to a rough consensus that Earth was a few billion years old and that radiometric dating was credible. Holmes published The Age of the Earth, an Introduction to Geological Ideas in 1927 in which he presented a range of 1.6 to 3.0 billion years. No great push to embrace radiometric dating followed, however, and

11454-413: The interactions between humans, farming, technology and the rest of nature as a new kind of laboratory for the study of the global ecology. Its mission was a two-year closure experiment with a crew of eight humans. Long-term it was seen as a precursor to gaining knowledge about the use of closed biospheres in space colonization . As an experimental ecological facility it allowed the study and manipulation of

11592-404: The isotopic dates. Cosmic ray dating is only useful on material that has not been melted, since melting erases the crystalline structure of the material, and wipes away the tracks left by the particles. Altogether, the concordance of age dates of both the earliest terrestrial lead reservoirs and all other reservoirs within the Solar System found to date are used to support the fact that Earth and

11730-501: The lacking formal research program. Some sixty-four projects were included in the research program that Walford and Alling spearheaded developing. Undoubtedly the reduced oxygen and the calorie-restricted, nutrient-dense diet contributed to low morale. The Alling faction feared that the Poynter group were prepared to go so far as to import food, if it meant making them fitter to carry out research projects. They considered that would be

11868-466: The medical team decided to boost oxygen with injections in January and August 1993. The oxygen decline and minimal response of the crew indicated that changes in air pressure are what trigger human adaptation responses. These studies enhanced the biomedical research program. Managing CO 2 levels was a particular challenge. Daily fluctuation of carbon dioxide dynamics was typically 600 ppm because of

12006-523: The more populous biomes lie near the equator . Experimental biospheres, also called closed ecological systems , have been created to study ecosystems and the potential for supporting life outside the Earth. These include spacecraft and the following terrestrial laboratories: No biospheres have been detected beyond the Earth; therefore, the existence of extraterrestrial biospheres remains hypothetical. The rare Earth hypothesis suggests they should be very rare, save ones composed of microbial life only. On

12144-426: The old boy beamed upon me. Rutherford assumed that the rate of decay of radium as determined by Ramsay and Soddy was accurate and that helium did not escape from the sample over time. Rutherford's scheme was inaccurate, but it was a useful first step. Boltwood focused on the end products of decay series. In 1905, he suggested that lead was the final stable product of the decay of radium. It was already known that radium

12282-412: The only new supplies brought in were plastic bags, but others accused them of bringing food and other items. More criticism was raised when it was learned that, likewise, the project injected oxygen in January 1993 to make up for a failure in the balance of the system that resulted in the amount of oxygen steadily declining. Some thought that these criticisms ignored that Biosphere 2 was an experiment where

12420-424: The order could not be enforced without effectively terminating the closure. Isolated groups tend to attach greater significance to group dynamic and personal emotional fluctuations common in all groups. Some reports from polar station crews exaggerated psychological problems. Although some of the first closure team thought they were depressed, psychological examination of the biospherians showed no depression and fit

12558-426: The original founding group stated both abusive behaviour by Bannon and others, and that the bankers' actual goal was to destroy the experiment. During a 1996 trial, Bannon testified that he had called one of the plaintiffs, Abigail Alling, a "self-centered, deluded young woman" and a "bimbo". He also testified that when the woman submitted a five-page complaint outlining safety problems at the site, he promised to shove

12696-575: The other hand, Earth analogs may be quite numerous, at least in the Milky Way galaxy , given the large number of planets. Three of the planets discovered orbiting TRAPPIST-1 could possibly contain biospheres. Given limited understanding of abiogenesis , it is currently unknown what percentage of these planets actually develop biospheres. Based on observations by the Kepler Space Telescope team, it has been calculated that provided

12834-497: The overall mission objectives. On February 14, a portion of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) resigned. Time magazine wrote: "Now, the veneer of credibility, already bruised by allegations of tamper-prone data, secret food caches and smuggled supplies, has cracked ... the two-year experiment in self-sufficiency is starting to look less like science and more like a $ 150 million stunt." The SAC

12972-503: The physicist William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin published calculations that fixed the age of Earth at between 20 million and 400 million years. He assumed that Earth had formed as a completely molten object, and determined the amount of time it would take for the near-surface temperature gradient to decrease to its present value. His calculations did not account for heat produced via radioactive decay (a then unknown process) or, more significantly, convection inside Earth , which allows

13110-562: The predominant way scientists date geologic time scales. Techniques for radioactive dating have been tested and fine-tuned on an ongoing basis since the 1960s. Forty or so different dating techniques have been utilized to date, working on a wide variety of materials. Dates for the same sample using these different techniques are in very close agreement on the age of the material. Possible contamination problems do exist, but they have been studied and dealt with by careful investigation, leading to sample preparation procedures being minimized to limit

13248-429: The presence of the three mineral phases allows investigation of isotopic dates using samples that provide a great separation in concentrations between parent and daughter nuclides. This is particularly true of uranium and lead. Lead is strongly chalcophilic and is found in the sulfide at a much greater concentration than in the silicate, versus uranium. Because of this segregation in the parent and daughter nuclides during

13386-471: The probability of abiogenesis is higher than 1 to 1000, the closest alien biosphere should be within 100 light-years from the Earth. It is also possible that artificial biospheres will be created in the future, for example with the terraforming of Mars . Biosphere 2 University of Arizona Biosphere 2 is an American Earth system science research facility located in Oracle, Arizona . Its mission

13524-417: The project as if it was an Olympic contest to see how much could be done without opening the doors". The oxygen inside the facility, which began at 20.9%, fell at a steady pace and after 16 months was down to 14.5%. This is equivalent to the oxygen availability at an elevation of 4,080 metres (13,390 ft). Since some biospherians were starting to have symptoms like sleep apnea and fatigue, Walford and

13662-580: The project was scrutinized but poorly understood in the media, and that this scrutiny ceased after Columbia University assumed management, because it was assumed they were "proper" scientists. One view of Biosphere 2 was that it was "the most exciting scientific project to be undertaken in the United States since President John F. Kennedy launched us toward the moon". Others called it " New Age drivel masquerading as science". John Allen and Roy Walford did have mainstream credentials. John Allen held

13800-457: The project, leading to a loss of $ 25 million in fiscal year 1992. Some crew members and staff were concerned about Bannon, who had previously investigated cost overruns at the site; two former Biosphere 2 crew members flew back to Arizona to protest the hire and broke into the compound to warn the crew members that Bannon and the new management would jeopardize their safety. At 3 a.m. on April 5, 1994, Abigail Alling and Mark Van Thillo, members of

13938-399: The rate at which the oceans should have accumulated salt from erosion processes and determined that the oceans were about 80 to 100 million years old. By their chemical nature, rock minerals contain certain elements and not others; but in rocks containing radioactive isotopes, the process of radioactive decay generates exotic elements over time. By measuring the concentration of

14076-421: The replacement shuttle and future moon base. I do not have a degree, not even an MBA from Harvard, as John [Allen] had. I hire scientists and top engineers. Our company's credibility is not called into question because of my credentials: we are judged on the quality of our work". H.T. Odum noted that mavericks and outsiders have often contributed to the development of science: "The original management of Biosphere 2

14214-508: The same low-calorie, nutrient-dense diet that Roy Walford had studied in his research on extending lifespan through diet . Medical markers indicated the health of the crew during the two years was excellent. They showed the same improvement in health indices such as lowering of blood cholesterol, blood pressure, enhancement of immune system. They lost an average of 16% of their pre-entry body weight before stabilizing and regaining some weight during their second year. Subsequent studies showed that

14352-481: The same sample, to provide an isochron . Alternatively, more than one dating system may be used on a sample to check the date. Some meteorites are furthermore considered to represent the primitive material from which the accreting solar disk was formed. Some have behaved as closed systems (for some isotopic systems) soon after the solar disk and the planets formed. To date, these assumptions are supported by much scientific observation and repeated isotopic dates, and it

14490-421: The sample cannot always be assumed to have remained as a closed system, by which it is meant that either the parent or daughter nuclide (a species of atom characterised by the number of neutrons and protons an atom contains) or an intermediate daughter nuclide may have been partially removed from the sample, which will skew the resulting isotopic date. To mitigate this effect it is usual to date several minerals in

14628-438: The sample. His studies were flawed by the fact that the decay series of thorium was not understood, which led to incorrect results for samples that contained both uranium and thorium. However, his calculations were far more accurate than any that had been performed to that time. Refinements in the technique would later give ages for Boltwood's 26 samples of 410 million to 2.2 billion years. Although Boltwood published his paper in

14766-523: The sea floor under 2,590 m (8,500 ft; 1.61 mi) of ocean off the coast of the northwestern United States , as well as 2,400 m (7,900 ft; 1.5 mi) beneath the seabed off Japan. Culturable thermophilic microbes have been extracted from cores drilled more than 5,000 m (16,000 ft; 3.1 mi) into the Earth's crust in Sweden , from rocks between 65–75 °C (149–167 °F). Temperature increases with increasing depth into

14904-456: The space goal ... When they came to me with this new project, they seemed so well organized, so inspired, I simply decided to forget the past. You shouldn't hold their past against them." Poynter in her memoir rebuts the critique that because some of the creative team of Biosphere 2 were not credentialed scientists, the results of the endeavor are invalid. "Some reporters hurled accusations that we were unscientific. Apparently because many of

15042-433: The stable end product of the decay, coupled with knowledge of the half life and initial concentration of the decaying element, the age of the rock can be calculated. Typical radioactive end products are argon from decay of potassium -40, and lead from decay of uranium and thorium . If the rock becomes molten, as happens in Earth's mantle , such nonradioactive end products typically escape or are redistributed. Thus

15180-455: The strong drawdown during sunlight hours by plant photosynthesis , followed by a similar rise during the nighttime when system respiration dominated. As expected, there was also a strong seasonal signature to CO 2 levels, with wintertime levels as high as 4,000–4,500 ppm and summertime levels near 1,000 ppm. The crew worked to manage the CO 2 by occasionally turning on a CO 2 scrubber , after realizing that activating and de-activating

15318-575: The system metabolism, hydrologic balance, and heat and humidity, to papers that describe rainforest, mangrove, ocean, and agronomic system development in this carbon dioxide-rich environment. Though several dissertations and many scientific papers used data from the early closure experiments at Biosphere 2, much of the original data has never been analyzed and is unavailable or lost, perhaps due to scientific politics and in-fighting. Science historian Rebecca Redier has claimed that because Biosphere 2's creators were perceived as outsiders to academic science,

15456-448: The temperature in the upper mantle to remain high much longer, maintaining a high thermal gradient in the crust much longer. Even more constraining were Thomson's estimates of the age of the Sun, which were based on estimates of its thermal output and a theory that the Sun obtains its energy from gravitational collapse; Thomson estimated that the Sun is about 20 million years old. Geologists such as Lyell had difficulty accepting such

15594-461: The total diet, which included crops of bananas, papayas, sweet potatoes, beets, peanuts, lablab and cowpea beans, rice, and wheat. Especially during the first year, the eight inhabitants reported continual hunger. Calculations indicated that Biosphere 2's farm was amongst the highest producing in the world "exceeding by more than five times that of the most efficient agrarian communities of Indonesia, southern China, and Bangladesh". They consumed

15732-413: The unexpected would occur, adding to knowledge of how complex ecologies develop and interact, not a demonstration where everything was known in advance. H. T. Odum noted: "The management process during 1992–1993 using data to develop theory, test it with simulation, and apply corrective actions was in the best scientific tradition. Yet some journalists crucified the management in the public press, treating

15870-444: The vacuum of outer space . The total amount of soil and subsurface bacterial carbon is estimated as 5 × 10 g. The mass of prokaryote microorganisms—which includes bacteria and archaea, but not the nucleated eukaryote microorganisms —may be as much as 0.8 trillion tons of carbon (of the total biosphere mass , estimated at between 1 and 4 trillion tons). Barophilic marine microbes have been found at more than

16008-403: The viability of closed ecological systems to support and maintain human life in outer space as a substitute for Earth's biosphere . It was designed to explore the web of interactions within life systems in a structure with different areas based on various biological biomes . In addition to the several biomes and living quarters for people, there was an agricultural area and work space to study

16146-411: Was Norberto Alvarez-Romo (Capt.), John Druitt, Matt Finn, Pascale Maslin, Charlotte Godfrey, Rodrigo Romo and Tilak Mahato. The second crew achieved complete sufficiency in food production. On April 1, 1994, a severe dispute within the management team led to the ousting of the on-site management by federal marshals serving a restraining order, and financier Ed Bass hired Steve Bannon , then-manager of

16284-463: Was an intermediate product of the decay of uranium. Rutherford joined in, outlining a decay process in which radium emitted five alpha particles through various intermediate products to end up with lead, and speculated that the radium–lead decay chain could be used to date rock samples. Boltwood did the legwork and by the end of 1905 had provided dates for 26 separate rock samples, ranging from 92 to 570 million years. He did not publish these results, which

16422-406: Was coined during the 1960s and encompasses both biological and physical components of the planet. The Second International Conference on Closed Life Systems defined biospherics as the science and technology of analogs and models of Earth's biosphere; i.e., artificial Earth-like biospheres. Others may include the creation of artificial non-Earth biospheres—for example, human-centered biospheres or

16560-477: Was dissolved because it had deviated from its mandate to review and improve scientific research and became involved in advocating management changes. Some SAC members chose to remain as consultants to Biosphere 2. The SAC's recommendations in their report were implemented including a new Director of Research Jack Corliss , allowing import/export of scientific samples and equipment through the facility airlocks to increase research and decrease crew labor, and to generate

16698-444: Was exchanged with the outside during this time, according to systems analyst Donella Meadows , who received a communication from Alling saying that she and Van Thillo judged it their ethical duty to give those inside the choice of continuing with the drastically changed human experiment or leaving, as they didn't know what the crew had been told of the new situation. "On April 1, 1994, at approximately 10 AM ... limousines arrived on

16836-569: Was faster than the photosynthesis (possibly in part due to relatively low light penetration through the glazed structure and the fact that Biosphere 2 started with a small but rapidly increasing plant biomass) resulting in a slow decrease of oxygen. A mystery accompanied the oxygen decline: the corresponding increase in carbon dioxide did not appear. This concealed the underlying process until an investigation by Jeff Severinghaus and Wallace Broecker of Columbia University's Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory using isotopic analysis showed that carbon dioxide

16974-427: Was fortunate because they were flawed by measurement errors and poor estimates of the half-life of radium. Boltwood refined his work and finally published the results in 1907. Boltwood's paper pointed out that samples taken from comparable layers of strata had similar lead-to-uranium ratios, and that samples from older layers had a higher proportion of lead, except where there was evidence that lead had leached out of

17112-403: Was half over, the group had split into two factions and, according to Poynter, people who had been intimate friends had become implacable enemies, barely on speaking terms. "Appreciation of the value of biosphere interconnectedness and interdependency was appreciated as both an everyday beauty and a challenging reality," Walford later acknowledged, "I don't like some of them, but we were a hell of

17250-508: Was ill-used. Their interest in science is not genuine. They seem to have some sort of secret agenda, they seem to be guided by some sort of religious or philosophical system." Prance went on in the 1991 newspaper interview to say "they are visionaries ... And maybe to fulfill their vision they have become somewhat cultlike. But they are not a cult, per se ... I am interested in ecological restoration systems. And I think all sorts of scientific things can come of this experiment, far beyond

17388-418: Was left in limbo. Columbia University assumed management of the facility in 1995 and used it to run experiments until 2003. It then appeared to be in danger of being demolished to make way for housing and retail stores, but was taken over for research by the University of Arizona in 2007. The University of Arizona took full ownership of the structure in 2011. Research continues at the facility while also being

17526-474: Was likened to an island ecology. Much of the evidence for isolated human groups comes from psychological studies of scientists overwintering in Antarctic research stations. The study of this phenomenon is " confined environment psychology " ( cf. environmental psychology ); according to Jane Poynter, it was known to be a challenge and crews often split into factions. Before the first closure mission

17664-522: Was made of steel tubing and high-performance glass and steel frames. The frame and glazing materials were designed and made to specification by a firm run by a one-time associate of Buckminster Fuller, Peter Jon Pearce (Pearce Structures, Inc.). The window seals and structures had to be designed to be almost perfectly airtight, such that the air exchange would be extremely low, permitting tracking of subtle changes over time. The patented airtight sealing methods, developed by Pearce and William Dempster, achieved

17802-485: Was named "Biosphere 2" because it was meant to be the second fully self-sufficient biosphere , after the Earth itself ("Biosphere 1"). The glass and spaceframe facility is located in Oracle, Arizona , at the base of the Santa Catalina Mountains , about 50 minutes north of Tucson . Its elevation is around 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above sea level. The above-ground physical structure of Biosphere 2

17940-454: Was not yet known to science. In 1892, Thomson was ennobled as Lord Kelvin in appreciation of his many scientific accomplishments. In 1895 John Perry challenged Kelvin's figure on the basis of his assumptions on conductivity, and Oliver Heaviside entered the dialogue, considering it "a vehicle to display the ability of his operator method to solve problems of astonishing complexity." Other scientists backed up Kelvin's figures. Darwin's son,

18078-421: Was nothing secret about the carbon dioxide device and it constituted another technical system augmenting ecological processes. The carbon precipitator could reverse the chemical reactions and thus release the stored carbon dioxide in later years when the facility might need additional carbon. The soils were selected to have enough carbon to provide for the plants of the ecosystems to grow from infancy to maturity,

18216-418: Was only used twice for its original intended purposes as a closed-system experiment: once from 1991 to 1993, and the second time from March to September 1994. Both attempts ran into problems including low amounts of food and oxygen , die-offs of many animals and plants included in the experiment (though this was anticipated since the project used a strategy of deliberately "species-packing" anticipating losses as

18354-420: Was reacting with exposed concrete inside Biosphere 2 to form calcium carbonate in a process called carbonatation , thereby sequestering both carbon and oxygen. After Biosphere 2's first mission, extensive research and system improvements were undertaken, including sealing concrete to prevent the uptake of carbon dioxide. The second mission began on March 6, 1994, with an announced run of ten months. The crew

18492-718: Was referring to the Synergia Ranch in New Mexico , where indeed many of the Biospherians did practice theater under John Allen's leadership, and began to develop the ideas behind Biosphere 2. They also founded the Institute of Ecotechnics. One of their own scientific consultants was earlier critical. Ghillean Prance , director of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew , designed the rainforest biome inside

18630-559: Was regarded by many scientists as untrained for lack of scientific degrees, even though they had engaged in a preparatory study program for a decade, interacting with the international community of scientists including the Russians involved with closed systems. The history of science has many examples where people of atypical background open science in new directions, in this case implementing mesocosm organization and ecological engineering with fresh hypotheses". In its report of August 1992,

18768-470: Was reproduction of plants and animals. Insect pests, like cockroaches , flourished. A globally invasive tramp ant species, Paratrechina longicornis had come to dominate other ant species. The planned ecological succession in the rainforest and strategies to protect the area from harsh incident sunlight and salt aerosols from the ocean worked well, and a surprising amount of the original biodiversity persisted. Biosphere 2 in its early ecological development

18906-439: Was seasonally active; its biomass was cut and stored by the crew as part of their management of carbon dioxide. Rainforest pioneer species grew rapidly, but trees there and in the savannah suffered from etiolation and weakness caused by lack of stress wood , normally created in response to winds in natural conditions. Corals reproduced in the ocean area, and crew helped maintain ocean system health by hand-harvesting algae from

19044-413: Was very plausible that the layers were the same age. Smith's nephew and student, John Phillips , later calculated by such means that Earth was about 96 million years old. In the mid-18th century, the naturalist Mikhail Lomonosov suggested that Earth had been created separately from, and several hundred thousand years before, the rest of the universe. Lomonosov's ideas were mostly speculative. In 1779

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