Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky & the Gaia Theory

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In the last post, I introduced Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (link to a brief bio), the Russian scientist whose pioneering work, unnoticed by James Lovelock when he first proposed the Gaia hypothesis, forms the basis for much of our understanding of the biosphere, what it really is, and how the region of the biosphere is the key to understanding Gaia.  In this post I will explore some of Vernadsky’s ideas, based on his book, The Biosphere, first published in Moscow, in 1926.  His book was translated into English, and is now available online, and in print. Click on the image of his book, and you will be able to read the Table of Contents, and a few pages.

The Biosphere by Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky

In the Introduction to the English translation of Vernadsky’s book, the writers explain that Vernadsky set out to describe a physics of living matter.  Vernadsky viewed life as a cosmic phenomenon which could be understood by the same universal laws that applied to such constants as gravity and the speed of light.  His ideas, however, traveled out of Russia at the speed of a tortoise.  Even James Lovelock failed to find Vernadsky’s ideas until many years after he had published many papers, given speeches, and published a major book on the Gaia hypothesis—the idea of which was developed in nearly a complete form by Vernadsky more than 50 years earlier.  Vernadsky’s ideas, however, were known in Europe, especially France, where his book was translated into French in 1929.  After World War II his ideas were introduced in Western Europe as biogeochemistry, geomicrobiology, ecology, and environmental chemical cycles.

The concept of the biosphere is a Vernadskian invention, and some say a Vernadskian revolution.  In the context of the Thomas S. Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Vernadsky’s idea of the biosphere represents a paradigm shift for both scientists and laymen alike.   To Vernadsky, the Biosphere was “the integrated living and life-supporting system comprising the peripheral envelope of planet Earth together with its surrounding atmosphere so far down, and up, as form of life exists naturally” (as defined by Nicholas Polunin, and quoted in the introduction of Vernadsky’s book).

It is important to note here that the term “biosphere” was coined by the Austrain geologist Eduard Suess, who described the biosphere as the concentric, life-supporting layer of the primordial Earth.  The deeper notion of the biosphere is the work of Vernadsky, however.  According to Jacques Geinrvald, who wrote the introduction to the 1998 edition of Vernadsky’s book, Vernadsky explained that:

the biosphere is not only ‘the face of the Earth’ but is the global dynamic system transforming our planet since the beginning of biogeological time.

To Vernadsky, the biosphere is a biogeochemical evolving system.  And according to Geinvald, the ideas was not welcomed by mainsteam science. Vernadsky’s idea the biosphere should be conceived from a geochemical point of view, that considered the Earth as a “dynamic energy-matter organization, like a thermodynamic engine” (Geinrvald, p. 26).  Conceptually here is the biogeochemical Earth is powered by sun.

Here we see the initial stage of the “earth system” concept, and again, Vernadsky is ahead of the game.  To many earth science teachers, this is beginning of the earth system education approach, an approach that call holistic science education (see Nir Orion’s article on holistic science).  Holistic science education is still NOT mainstream.  Most curriculum standards are still written splitting science into compartments that are based on traditional college science departments.  But that’s another story.  But in this discussion, the main point is that Vernadsky was trying to integrate the disparate fields of biology, chemical and geology in his synthesis of the biosphere, while at the same time these fields were going their separate ways.

For science teachers, Vernadsky’s ideas provide empirical support for the teaching of the Gaia theory.

Readings:

Vladimir I. Vernadsky. The Biosphere. Copernicus, 1998. (Read a limited preview on Google Books)