of living inside two biospheres.

我十分榮幸地

Of course we all here in this room live in Biosphere 1.

住過兩個生態圈。

I've also lived in Biosphere 2.

當然，這房間裡的每個人，都住在生態圈一號裡。

And the wonderful thing about that is that I get to compare biospheres.

我還曾在生態圈二號裡住過。

And hopefully from that I get to learn something.

妙的是，我可以比較這兩個生態圈。

So what did I learn? Well,

希望藉此能學到一些東西。

here I am inside Biosphere 2, making a pizza.

那麼，我學到了什麼呢？嗯，

So I am harvesting the wheat, in order to make the dough.

這是我在生態圈二號裡做披薩。

And then of course I have to milk the goats

我正在收割小麥，用來做麵糰。

and feed the goats in order to make the cheese.

然後，當然我也必須去擠羊奶

It took me four months in Biosphere 2 to make a pizza.

以及餵山羊，這樣才能做出乳酪。

Here in Biosphere 1, well it takes me about two minutes,

在生態圈二號裡，我花了四個月才做出披薩。

because I pick up the phone and I call and say,

在生態圈一號裡，這只要大約兩分鐘。

"Hey, can you deliver the pizza?"

因為我只用打個電話，說，

So Biosphere 2

“嘿，你能送個披薩過來嗎?“

was essentially a three-acre,

生態圈二號

entirely sealed, miniature world

基本上是一個佔地三英畝，

that I lived in for two years and 20 minutes.

完全封閉的小型世界

(Laughter)

我在那裡住了二年又20分鐘。

Over the top it was sealed with steel and glass,

(笑聲)

underneath it was sealed with a pan of steel --

頂端是由鋼骨和玻璃封起來的。

essentially entirely sealed.

底部也是由一塊大鐵盤封閉的。

So we had our own miniature rainforest,

基本上，這是完全封閉的。

a private beach with a coral reef.

因此，我們有自己的迷你雨林，

We had a savanna, a marsh, a desert.

私人海灘帶有珊瑚礁。

We had our own half-acre farm that we had to grow everything.

我們有熱帶草原、沼澤、沙漠。

And of course we had our human habitat, where we lived.

我們有半英畝的農場，用來養植任何東西。

Back in the mid-'80s when we were designing Biosphere 2,

當然，我們也有人類住處，供我們居住。

we had to ask ourselves some pretty basic questions.

1980年代中期，當我們設計生態圈二號的時候

I mean, what is a biosphere?

我們必須問自己一些很基本的問題。

Back then, yes, I guess we all know now

例如說，什麼是生態圈?

that it is essentially the sphere of life around the Earth, right?

在那個時候，是的，我想現在我們都知道了

Well, you have to get a little more specific than that if you're going to build one.

基本上那是一個供生命存活的圍繞著地球的圈子，對吧？

And so we decided that what it really is

嗯，如果你要造一個的話，就必須比那個定義更明確一點。

is that it is entirely materially closed --

因此，我們決定，它最必要的就是

that is, nothing goes in or out at all, no material --

它在物質上必須完全封閉，

and energetically open,

也就是說，沒有任何材料的進出，

which is essentially what planet Earth is.

而能量是開放的。

This is a chamber that was 1/400th the size of Biosphere 2

基本上地球就是這樣。

that we called our Test Module.

這是一個只有生態圈二號1/400大小的密室。

And the very first day that this fellow, John Allen,

我們稱它為測試模組。

walked in, to spend a couple of days in there

就在第一天，這位伙伴 John Allen，

with all the plants and animals and bacteria that we'd put in there

走了進去，在那花了幾天，

to hopefully keep him alive,

和我們放進去的植物、動物、細菌一起

the doctors were incredibly concerned

希望他能活著。

that he was going to succumb to some dreadful toxin,

醫生十分擔心

or that his lungs were going to get choked with bacteria or something, fungus.

他會感染上一些十分致命的病毒，

But of course none of that happened.

或者他的肺會嗆到細菌或別的東西，如菌類。

And over the ensuing few years,

但是，當然這些都沒發生。

there were great sagas about designing Biosphere 2.

在接下來的幾年裡，

But by 1991

有著不少關於生態圈二號設計的傳奇。

we finally had this thing built.

但是到了1991年

And it was time for us to go in

我們終於建了這個東西。

and give it a go.

同時也到了我們進入的時間

We needed to know,

去實測一下。

is life this malleable?

我們需要知道，

Can you take this biosphere,

生命具有適應能力嗎?

that has evolved on a planetary scale,

你能把這個生態圈

and jam it into a little bottle,

從星球規模推演而來的，

and will it survive?

將它壓縮成小瓶子，

Big questions.

而還能存活嗎？

And we wanted to know this both for being able to go somewhere else

都是大問題。

in the universe -- if we were going to go to Mars, for instance,

我們想知道，一方面為了能夠到宇宙他處，

would we take a biosphere with us, to live in it?

例如說，我們要去火星，

We also wanted to know so we can understand more about

我們要否帶個生態圈，住進去?

the Earth that we all live in.

我們也想知道，以便我們能更了解

Well, in 1991 it was finally time for us to go in

我們賴以生存的地球。

and try out this baby.

1991年，終於到了我們入住的時候

Let's take it on a maiden voyage.

試驗一下我們的心血結晶。

Will it work? Or will something happen

讓我們來一趟處女航吧。

that we can't understand and we can't fix,

它會成功嗎？會不會有

thereby negating the concept of man-made biospheres?

我們不了解或應付不了的事發生？

So eight of us went in: four men and four women.

從而否定了人造生態圈的概念？

More on that later.

我們進去了八個人，四男四女。

(Laughter)

以後會更多。

And this is the world that we lived in.

(笑聲)

So, on the top, we had

這就是我們生活的世界。

these beautiful rainforests and an ocean,

在上層，我們有

and underneath we had all this technosphere, we called it,

美麗的雨林和海洋。

which is where all the pumps and the valves

下面，有我們所稱的科技空間。

and the water tanks and the air handlers, and all of that.

那裡有所有的幫浦和閥門

One of the Biospherians called it "garden of Eden

儲水槽和空氣處理裝置，以及其他設備。

on top of an aircraft carrier."

一位圈中人稱它為：“航空母艦上的伊甸園"。

And then also we had the human habitat of course,

一位圈中人稱它為：“航空母艦上的伊甸園"。

with the laboratories, and all of that.

當然，我們也有人類居住處，

This is the agriculture.

有實驗室，諸如此類。

It was essentially an organic farm.

這是農業空間。

The day I walked into Biosphere 2,

它基本上是個有機農場。

I was, for the first time,

我走進生態圈二號的那天，

breathing a completely different atmosphere

我第一次

than everybody else in the world,

呼吸著和世界所有人

except seven other people.

都不一樣的大氣。

At that moment I became part of that biosphere.

除了另外和我同行的七人。

And I don't mean that in an abstract sense;

那一刻開始, 我成了那個生態圈的一部分。

I mean it rather literally.

我這可不是抽象地說說而已。

When I breathed out, my CO2

而是有十分具體的意思。

fed the sweet potatoes that I was growing.

當我呼出空氣時，二氧化碳

And we ate an awful lot of the sweet potatoes.

供養著我種植的紅薯。

(Laughter)

而我們吃了無數的紅薯。

And those sweet potatoes

(笑聲)

became part of me.

而這些紅薯

In fact, we ate so many sweet potatoes

又變成了我身體的一部分。

I became orange with sweet potato.

實際上，我們吃了那麼多的紅薯，

I literally was eating the same carbon over and over again.

因著紅薯, 我變成橙色的。

I was eating myself in some strange sort of bizarre way.

我實際上一次次吃著同樣的碳化物。

When it came to our atmosphere, however,

說得奇怪點，我不停地吃我自己。

it wasn't that much of a joke over the long term,

然而, 當提到我們的大氣圈時,

because it turned out that we were losing oxygen, quite a lot of oxygen.

從長遠來看, 這可不僅僅是個笑話。

And we knew that we were losing CO2.

因為它顯示出，我們在失去氧氣，數量可觀的氧氣。

And so we were working to sequester carbon.

而且我們也知道，我們在失去二氧化碳。

Good lord -- we know that term now.

所以我們努力固碳。

We were growing plants like crazy.

感謝上帝，我們現在知道了這個術語。

We were taking their biomass, storing them in the basement,

我們像瘋了一樣地種著植物。

growing plants, going around, around, around,

我們把那些生物質移到地下室儲存，

trying to take all of that carbon out of the atmosphere.

不停地種植，不停地種，

We were trying to stop carbon from going into the atmosphere.

試圖吸收大氣圈裡多餘的碳。

We stopped irrigating our soil, as much as we could.

我們也試圖阻止碳進入大氣圈。

We stopped tilling, so that we could prevent greenhouse gasses from going into the air.

我們盡可能停止灌溉土壤。

But our oxygen was going down faster

我們停止翻土，這樣我們可能避免溫室氣體進入空氣。

than our CO2 was going up, which was quite unexpected,

但我們失去氧氣的速度更快，

because we had seen them going in tandem in the test module.

比二氧化碳增加的速度還快，這是意料外的。

And it was like playing atomic hide-and-seek.

因為在測試模組裡，我們同步檢驗過。

We had lost seven tons of oxygen.

這就像玩原子的捉迷藏。

And we had no clue where it was.

我們已經失去了七噸的氧氣。

And I tell you, when you lose a lot of oxygen --

而我們絲毫不知它藏在哪裡。

and our oxygen went down quite far;

我告訴你，當你失去了很多氧氣時 --

it went from 21 percent down to 14.2 percent --

而我們失去的氧氣是很多的，

my goodness, do you feel dreadful.

從21%降到到14.2% --

I mean we were dragging ourselves around the Biosphere.

天哪，感覺是很恐怖的。

And we had sleep apnea at night.

我指的是，我們在生態圈裡勉強度日。

So you'd wake up gasping with breath,

睡覺時，我們會呼吸暫停。

because your blood chemistry has changed.

因而你會醒過來緊急吸氣。

And that you literally do that. You stop breathing and then you -- (Gasps) --

因為你的血液化學已經起了改變。

take a breath and it wakes you up. And it's very irritating.

你真的會那樣。你會停止呼吸，然後你 -- (喘息) --

And everybody outside thought we were dying.

吸一口氣，就會驚醒，這十分討厭。

I mean, the media was making it sound like were were dying.

外面的人都以為我們快死了。

And I had to call up my mother every other day saying, "No, Mum, it's fine, fine.

我是說，媒體讓這看起來，像是我們快死了。

We're not dead. We're fine. We're fine."

我得每隔一天打電話給我媽, 說, “沒事，媽，沒問題。

And the doctor was, in fact, checking us

我們沒有死，我們很好，我們很好。"

to make sure we were, in fact, fine.

事實上, 醫生檢查著我們

But in fact he was the person who was most susceptible to the oxygen.

來確定我們沒有事。

And one day he couldn't add up a line of figures.

但實際上，他才是最容易缺氧的那個人。

And it was time for us to put oxygen in.

有一天，他幾乎不能做簡單的算術。

And you might think, well,

那也是我們該放氧氣進來的時候。

"Boy, your life support system

你也許會在想，看吧，

was failing you. Wasn't that dreadful?"

"天呀, 你們的生命支援系統

Yes. In a sense it was terrifying.

正在殺你。那不可怕嗎?”

Except that I knew I could walk out the airlock door

是的，某個觀點上，那很可怕。

at any time, if it really got bad,

除了我知道，我可以走出那扇氣密門

though who was going to say, "I can't take it anymore!"?

隨時都可以，如果事情變得很糟。

Not me, that was for sure.

不過，誰會說 “我不行了!”？

But on the other hand, it was the scientific gold of the project,

顯然不會是我。

because we could really crank this baby up,

但是另一方面，這是科學研究計畫的黃金。

as a scientific tool,

因為我們真的可能把這搞定，

and see if we could, in fact, find

當成科學工具，

where those seven tons of oxygen had gone.

看看我們能否真的找到

And we did indeed find it.

那七噸氧氣到底去哪了。

And we found it in the concrete.

我們的確找到了它。

Essentially it had done something very simple.

我們是在水泥裡找到的。

We had put too much carbon in the soil in the form of compost.

基本上, 那很簡單。

It broke down; it took oxygen out of the air;

我們以堆肥方式在土壤裡存了太多的碳。

it put CO2 into the air; and it went into the concrete.

它分解了，把空氣中的氧氣帶走了。

Pretty straightforward really.

把二氧化碳放入空氣，然後它又跑進水泥裡。

So at the end of the two years

其實十分直截了當。

when we came out, we were elated,

所以在兩年後，