Biosphere 2 rises from southern Arizonas high desert like a bizarre hybrid spaceship and greenhouse. Packed with more than 3,800 carefully selected plants, animal, and insect species, this mega terrarium is one of the worlds most bio-diverse, lush and artificial wildernesses. Only recently transformed from an abandoned ghost dome to the University of AZ research center, the site was the setting of a grand drama about humans and ecology at the end of the twentieth century.