A panel of outside experts brought in to restore the scientific credibility of Biosphere 2, the experimental miniworld under a glass-and-steel dome, has disbanded in frustration.
Six of the 11 members, including scientists from NASA, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Cancer Institute and London's botanical Kew Gardens, voted Feb. 5 to dissolve the committee."I was frustrated by the lack of progress and I was eager to focus on my other activities," chairman Thomas E. Lovejoy, a biologist and official of the Smithsonian Institution, said Monday in a telephone interview from Mexico City. "I really regret that we weren't able to make greater progress."
He would not elaborate.
Earlier Monday, Biosphere 2's top official, Texas billionaire Edward P. Bass, said the panel was dissolved because of personality conflicts with the management team. Lovejoy would not comment on any personality conflicts.
Another panel member, Eugene Odum, director emeritus of the University of Georgia's Institute of Ecology, said: "Most of us view the program as very successful. What we've seen is not a scientific failure; it's a failure of human relationships."
The for-profit venture is an attempt to replicate Earth's environment in a three-acre greenhouse-like structure near Oracle, about 35 miles north of Tucson.
Four men and four women are to end a two-year stay in the Biosphere Sept. 26. They are trying to produce all their own food while recycling air, water and wastes.
The panel was appointed to advise the managers of the $150 million project after a series of problems put its scientific credibility at risk.
The problems included a crew member's return with unannounced supplies.