Biosphere 2 building. This is the building housing the rainforest section of the Biosphere 2 Center (B2C), Arizona, USA. Several other buildings (not seen) contain other areas such as an ocean and a desert. These areas can be seen on guided tours of the facility. Research is carried out here, but B2C is now also run as a tourist attraction. It recently celebrated its two millionth visitor (April 2004). Completed in 1991, Biosphere 2 was initially used to research sealed ecological systems, but early experiments involving humans encountered problems. It was then run by Columbia University from 1995-2003. Biosphere 2 is named after the Earth (Biosphere 1).