doc_text: Welcome to Biosphere 2 -- a domed Garden of Eden in the foothills of the Santa Catalina mountains outside Tucson.
  Here, beginning on Thursday, four men and four women will confine themselves for two years in one of the most bizarre research escapades in modern times.; Is it science or schlock?
  A tour de force or a tourist trap?
  ; A year behind schedule and five years in the making, Biosphere 2 has forged ahead despite questions about its credibility, charges of cultism and accusations that leaders bullied departed consultants.
  ; The creation of billionaire oil mogul Edward Bass, Biosphere 2 aims to study how people can live in an airtight world.
  In this biological maze, plants will recycle human wastes and turn them into the sustenance of life -- air, food and water.;
  Biosphere 2 could be the first step in the construction of a massive way station in space, its developers hope, and at the very least could help improve life on Earth.;
  But as the "Biospherians" prepare to don their spiffy blue jump suits and kiss the outside world goodbye, Earthlings are watching with a mixture of awe, fascination and skepticism.; Supporters gush that the grand experiment rivals the moon landing.
  Detractors snicker that Biosphere 2 could be the greatest stunt since "War of the Worlds."; "I don't know what they are attempting to do," said Robert D. MacElroy, a scientist at NASA/Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, where plans for a small space cottage are in their infancy.;
  MacElroy has visited the Biosphere 2 project and said, "There's a pretty grotesque size differential to what we're involved in.
  I don't know . . .
  how it would help with what we're doing."; 'NASA could never do this'; "NASA could never do this," countered Robert Frye, a project consultant and ecologist at the University of Arizona's Environmental Research Laboratory.
  "NASA would have spent a hundred million dollars and come up with a roomful of reports.
  But Biosphere 2 has a structure that can be used and studied for 100 years.";
  Looking like Hollywood's "Battlestar Gallactica," the gleaming steel-and-glass shell of Biosphere 2 is as long as three football fields and as tall as a five-story building.
  Inside are parts of a South American rain forest, a Caribbean coral reef and ocean, a Florida freshwater swamp, a Baja desert and a tropical Australian savannah.
  They are inhabited by 3,800 transplanted species of birds, reptiles, plants and insects.
  ; The eight Biospherians, all single, will electronically monitor their world through a maze of computers in the glitzy command center.
  A short walk will take them from the shore of an ocean to the mountains of a rain forest to barren desert.
  They will live in modern loft apartments and be under the constant watch of Biosphere 1 -- the Earth -- from a "Mission Control" located across the street.
  ; The mood inside Biosphere 2 was upbeat last week as participants counted down the days until Thursday's "closure," when air locks will be shut and the crew sealed inside.
  They seemed unperturbed by continuing questions from reporters about the project's credibility.;
  News reports since 1985 have linked the project's leaders to a 1970s commune where, some ex-commune members say, Biosphere 2 executive John Allen led a cult devoted to creating a new civilization.
  The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that one of Allen's protege's was oilman Bass, Biosphere 2's main financier.; Leader was a 'tyrant'; Laurence Veysey, a retired history professor from the University of California, Santa Cruz, who studied the commune in 1971, remembers Allen as a tyrant given to rages.
  Veysey recalls seeing "biosphere" written on a dining-room wall of the New Mexico commune, Synergia Ranch.; "They were a very secretive group," said Veysey, who devoted 100 pages to the ranch in a book on communes.
  "It was hard to figure out what they were up to."; In the years since the commune disbanded, Allen's vision and Bass's deep pockets have funded ecological ventures from Katmandu to France to western Australia.
  One was the Institute of Ecotechnics in London, billed by Biosphere 2 as "a major-ecological think-tank."
  Several of Biosphere 2's leaders have unaccredited degrees from the institute.; Institute non-existent; A Canadian television documentary last year went looking for the institute and found only an office over a cafe and art gallery.; Allen and Bass could not be reached for comment.
  In the past, Bass has denied being influenced by Allen, who told the Arizona Daily Star in June that he never operated "any mystical program."; "The whole cult thing is ridiculous," said Kathleen Dyhr, spokeswoman for Biosphere 2.
  "There have been so many people with Biosphere 2 who never had anything to do with John Allen 20 years ago."; During construction, Biosphere 2 recruited outside consultants from such reputable institutions as Yale University and the Smithsonian, Dyhr said.
  And many of the ecological studies here have been lauded by the scientific community, she said.; Project has defectors; But at least a half-dozen respected researchers have left the project, citing differences of substance and style.
  Some later recanted their criticisms, saying they were warned by Biosphere representatives they could be sued for libel.; Even now, many mainstream scientists wonder what Biosphere 2 will accomplish.; Its makers contend they have made an ecological system "out of nothing."
  But the structure will be powered by a set of natural gas generators and maintained by a staff of 50 outside support people.
  ; Some scientists also wonder whether Biosphere 2 will be leakproof.
  How will it hold up under the elements?
  And if they survive two years, what will Biospherians learn, other than how to live in a gigantic terrarium?; Naivety suggested; "I think they went into this rather naively," said Frank Salisbury, a plant physiologist at Utah State University.
  "I hope something good comes out of this, but I'm skeptical."; Biosphere 2 officials counter that something good already has, and point to 50 design patents in the works.
  ; First and foremost, they say, Biosphere 2 is a business.
  It's already the state's second largest tourist attraction after the Grand Canyon, and promoters are banking that more than a million people a year will visit.
  ; In fact, in the first five months of 1991, 65,000 people came to see the project, a hundredfold increase over the same period in 1990.; Shown a movie and taken on a walking tour for $9.95, visitors mostly gush over the landscape and rarely ask probing questions.
  They crowd the gift shop buying up Biosphere 2 memorabilia.; "It's really turning out to be nothing more than a tourist attraction," said Yvonne Clearwater, an environmental psychologist at NASA/Ames who sees little scientific value to Biosphere 2.; "It's kind of like a kooky Disneyland."
summary_text: Biosphere II, a domed glass and steel Garden of Eden in the foothills of Arizona's Santa Catalina range, will begin an experiment on Thursday in a biological maze where plants will recycle human wastes and turn them into the sustenance of life--air, food, and water.
  At the least, it is intended to help improve life on Earth.
  There is a great deal of skepticism about the credibility and usefulness of the experiment.
  Biosphere officials counter by pointing to 50 design patents in the works.
  They also claim it is a business-- Arizona's second largest tourist attraction after the Grand Canyon.