Make: Technology on Your Time Volume 10

TABLETOP BIOSPHERE

By Martin John Brown

Photography by Sam Murphy

ECOSYSTEMS ENGINEERING

The Tabletop Shrimp Support Module (TSSM) is a fun demonstration of the ecological cycles that keep us alive — and an enticement to muse on everything from godhood to space colonization.

When my 7th grade vocational aptitude test came back stamped “Forester” instead of “Astronaut,” I knew the test-makers had screwed up. Sure, I liked sitting in streams, and peering down those creepy holes by the roots of old trees. But I also knew that someday the whole frickin’ park would be flying through space. Hadn’t anyone else seen Battlestar Galactica?

Now we know that ...