Biosphere 2 Project undertaken by Space Biosphere Ventures, a private ecological research firm funded by Edward P. Bass of Texas. Roy Walford, former pathologist at UCLA and one of the eight inhabitants of the Biosphere, seen inside Biosphere 2 with his lunch (all food grown in the Biosphere). Walford authored a book titled The Anti-Aging Plan. He died in 2004 at age 79 of ALS. Walford had been involved in the Project since 1983, and set up the Biosphere's medical centre. Biosphere 2 was a privately funded experiment, designed to investigate the way in which humans interact with a small self-sufficient ecological environment, and to look at possibilities for future planetary colonization. MODEL RELEASED 1992