Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky
(1863-1945)


"The formation of an integrative approach to the biosphere,
as well as the very introduction of this level of organization
of living matter, are due entirely to Vernadsky"





 Né en 1863 à St Petersbourg et géologue de formation il est le fondateur de la géochimie .Ses études des effets des radiations solaires et cosmiques sur le vivant l'amenèrent à formuler une théorie révolutionnaire sur la biosphère en 1926 puis sur la  noosphère dans laquelle l'humanité émergerait en tant force de changement !
 

   "Some scientists consider that Vernadsky did for biological space what Darwin did for biological time. The work of both is necessary to understand biospherics. Darwin proved the unity of all life throughout the billions of years of time and the complexity of forms. Vernadsky showed the unity of all life in space, and that it operated on a daily scale as a cosmic phenomenon and geological force. (p. 5)"
 

    Vernadsky was the original pioneer of  biospherics, a science before its time.  Much of his work remained unknown to the western scientific community, due to political and linguistic factors, until very recently. In conjunction with James E. Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis,   it has presented a new way of looking at the Earth. (pp. 9-10)  Biosphere 2, constructed 40 years after Vernadsky's death, is a testament to the power of his theory and his message. It is a direct result of his ideas and influence.





Terms: 


Noosphere - Literally defined as "sphere of Intelligence."  According to Professor Evgenii Shepelev, Vernadsky defined "a new state of the biosphere termed noosphere in which mankind as a whole would become a new and a powerful geological entity able to transform the planet."(p.2) However, according to J. Allen and M. Nelson,  "Vernadsky discerned a new incipient phase in biospheric evolution -- the noosphere, or sphere of intelligence, wherein humanity could employ its evolutionary gifts as a  creative collaborative agent of evolution -- and where the widening conflict between technosphere and biosphere could be transformed into synergy."(p.40)

    A more conservative definition is provided by Andrey Lapo:  "Vernadsky called the biosphere controlled by the mind of man the noosphere" (p. 68)"
 





Psychozoic Era - An era in geologic time  in which humanity  as a whole is a powerful geologic entity able to transform the planet. We are currently in the psychozoic era.  Within the last two hundred years, humanity has arisen as one a powerful geologic force, moving more mass upon the earth than the biosphere. (pp. 1-2)
 




Gaia Theory - A theory originating in James Hutton but proposed by James E. Lovelock which  views the Earth as a physiological system that is, in a sense, alive, at least to the extent that the climate and chemical composition of the surface are self-regulated at a state favourable for life. (pp.8-12)"The biogeochemical cycles that maintain the Earth in its cosmically improbably state are actually regulated by activities of evolved microbially-dominated ecosystems.(p. 2)"
 




Biosphere - "A biosphere is a stable, complex, adaptive, evolving life system with the potential of operating in the right conditions as the major geological force transforming a planet's crust and as the source of sufficient free energy to power the start-up of a technosphere. (p. 4)"
    It is often referred as the thin envelope of life which covers the crust of the earth, including the oceanic, mountainous, and atmospheric areas which harbor life. While the term was originally coined by the Austrian geologist Eduard Suess, it was never given a definition or elaborated  upon until Vernadsky.  (p. 10) Under Vernadsky's definition, the Biosphere is the single greatest geologic force on earth, moving, processing, and recycling several billion tons of mass a year. It is the cenral subsystem of a centralized cybernetic system, Earth,  which tends towards a dynamic disequilibrium and tremendous internal diversity. (pp. 33-4)
 




Biospherics - "The science of energetically opened, relatively materially closed life systems that increase their free energy over time.(p. 1)" Vernadsky formulated two laws to describe biospheric activities:

       1) "The biogenic migration of chemical elements in the biosphere tends toward a maximum of manifestation."
        2) "The evolution of species, in tending rtowards the creation of new forms of life, must always move in the direction of increasing biogenic migration of the atmos in the biosphere." (p. 2)

John Allen formulated three laws of biospherics. They are:

    "1) The energy passing through the system increases the free energy in the system relative to the entropy during the passage of time.

       2) The system uses this free energy to increase its potnetial to extract a higher rate of free energy during the passage of time out of the incomming energy flux a) increase its mass by converting inorganic matter into organic mater, and b) by converting the inorganic matter into systems capable of storing more free energy.

       3) Information passing through the system obeys the same laws of increasing free energy of the system during the passage of time, and of increasing the systens/-Es potential to extract a higher rate of free energy out of the incomming information flow during the passage of time." (p.2)
 
  Biosphere 1