The project began with much fanfare in September when four men and four women, accompanied by 3,000 species of plants and animals, sealed themselves inside a eight-story glass structure for a two-year experiment in biological recycling.; The allegations of misrepresentation involve a device that removes carbon dioxide from the air and turns it into a solid for storage inside the Biosphere.; Carbon dioxide is exhaled by humans and metabolized by plants.; The current issue of the Village Voice says the group secretly installed the device, violating the advertised goal of recycling all materials naturally.; The Voice also said the levels of carbon dioxide in Biosphere 2 were becoming dangerously high, apparently because of the decrease in sunlight and the resulting decline in photosynthetic activity by the plants.; Kathleen Dyhr, a Biosphere spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview that the group had indeed installed a carbon dioxide remover.; She conceded that it was not "natural" but called it a minor aid to help stabilize the atmosphere during its initial fluctuations. The carbon dioxide levels were currently fine, she added, though higher than outside the closed environment.; Dyhr said the privately financed project had no obligation to disclose all the details of work in progress.; "If the experiment were formally reported, written up in a publication, and no mention was made of that fact, then that would be fraud," she said. "But I don't know of any research project that would discuss all its methods and techniques" this early in the process. "No experiment would be giving out data to the press."; From the start, when planning for the Biosphere got under way in the mid-1980s, it was billed as a futuristic experiment in closed recycling where plants and animals would provide each other with all the essentials for life.; Most especially, green plants would take human wastes (urine, feces and carbon dioxide) and turn them into oxygen, water and food for human consumption. No mention was made of chemical aids to the process.
Critics have long claimed that the Biosphere II project in the Arizona desert was more showmanship and cultism than science , despite its assertions to the contrary . Examples of misrepresentation include a device that removes carbon dioxide from the air and turns it into a solid for storage inside the Biosphere . A newspaper states the group secretly installed the device , violating the goal of recycling all materials naturally . A Biosphere spokesman said the group had installed a carbon dioxide remover but considered it a minor aid for initial stabilization , adding there was no obligation to disclose all details of work in progress .