The Biosphere

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Summary: I worked on the '97 edition, and I'm impressed!
Review: A biology graduate studying under Lynn Margulis, I was fortunate enough to be involved in preparing "The Biosphere" for publication; and even the raw typescript I transferred onto disk was impressive! Let me eagerly recommend V.I. Vernadsky, as the unsung Charles Darwin of geological and ecological science. In his time, Academician Vernadsky was a groundbreaker: the first to appreciate the vast scope of life's chemical influence upon the Earth ... this planet, which owes its own uniqueness to the very "living matter" of which we, just as all other organisms, are a part. To the readers of today, Vernadsky's own words tell us the historic beginnings of the discipline this brilliant, long-uncredited scientist's ideas founded. No student or advocate of global ecology should miss this thought-provoking, eye-opening book!

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Summary: A Hidden Revolution
Review: I have had the honour of reading numerous papers by Vernadsky and find as always with genius, a hidden underlaying dimension of truth. The Biosphere is without hesitation a work of scientific spirituality as well as pure scientific genius! In a time when environmental destruction is ramp, and politically controled scientific stupidity proliferates, logical hope and science is at hand. With Vernadsky science personifies a bridge between life and its meaning. Science is indeed the search for truth, and Vernadsky biosphere is a must for youth!!!!!

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Summary: Excelent book
Review: I have read this Vernadsky's books in Russian - his works is the cornerstone of modern culture. Vernadsky's work will be as important for human civilization in new millennium as books of Newton, Darwin, Einstein and Plato now. I'd like to read English Edition. Vernadsky's works are important for EVERYBODY, not only for biologists. Semyon D. Savransky, Ph.D. (Physics & Materaials Science, TRIZ)

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Summary: Deepest Naturalist
Review: I'm very happy that Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky becomes little by little known for the English speaking public. Although his "Biosphere" has been written over 70 years ago, even now its ideas remain fresh and actual. Indeed, the "Biosphere" provides a new level of thinking which permits us to consider Vladimir Vernadsky as a deepest naturalist of our century. And now I'm looking forward to the time when they will be translated and published his subsequent books - first of all the book on the noosphere: "Scientific thought as a planet phenomenon".

Rating:
Summary: Deepest Naturalist
Review: I'm very happy that Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky becomes little by little known for the English speaking public. Although his "Biosphere" has been written over 70 years ago, even now its ideas remain fresh and actual. Indeed, the "Biosphere" provides a new level of thinking which permits us to consider Vladimir Vernadsky as a deepest naturalist of our century. And now I'm looking forward to the time when they will be translated and published his subsequent books - first of all the book on the noosphere: "Scientific thought as a planet phenomenon".

Rating:
Summary: A work of rare genius rediscovered
Review: It's hard to read this book without coming away with the impression of a powerful, original mind at work. Many of Vernadsky's ideas remain unappreciated to this day. In particular, the idea of life as a cosmological phenomenon, as a means by which energy is stored and transformed on a planetary scale, should become increasingly important as the science of astrobiology develops a rigorous intellectual basis.

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Summary: One of the great classics of modern science.
Review: Though long unknown in the West, Vladimir Vernadsky's THE BIOSPHERE, first published in 1926, revolutionized our view of Earth. Although Viennese geologist Eduart Suess (1831-1914) had coined the term biosphere for the place on Earth's surface where life dwells, it is Vernadsky's concept of the biosphere, as first set forth in this book, that is accepted today.

Vernadsky teaches us that life, including human life, using visible light, has transformed our planet over the eons. He illuminates the difference between an inanimate, mineralogical view of Earth's history, and an endlessly dynamic picture of Earth as the domain and product of living matter, to a degree nnot yet well understood. What Darwin did for life through time, Vernadsky did for all life through space.

With this milestone publication, the first English translation of the entire text, English-speaking readers can at last read on of the great classics of modern science in their own language.

Mark McMenamin is Professor of Geology at Mount Holyoke College and is an authority on paleobiological events. McMenamin has written extensive annotations to explain the structure of Vernadsky's arguments and their modern relevance; Jacques Grinevald, the world's leading scholar on the history of the biosphere, has provided an introduction that places the book in the proper historical context; and a stellar cast of international experts have co-signed the foreword.

"Vernadsky is incresingly regarded as a figure as important as Charles Darwin for our understanding of the evolution of life on Earth...THE BIOSPHERE, his seminal text is only now published...its resonance with modern thinking in the environmental sciences makes it hard to believe that it was written more than 70 years ago...Now we too can read the words of the invisible man of the biosphere in a surprisingly readable translation." -New Scientist

"Vladimir Vernadsky was a brilliant and prescient scholar--a true scientific visionary who saw deep connections between life on Earth and the rest of the planet and understood the profound implications for life as a cosmic phenomenon. I am delighted to see his THE BIOSHPERE finally published in its entirety for an English reading audience." -David H. Grinspoon, author of VENUS REVEALED

"THE BIOSPHERE should be required reading for all entry level students in earth and planetary sciences. It will open their eyes to holistic science and start them toward understanding the interconnected processes in the biosphere" -Eric D. Schneider, author of INTO THE COOL

"As research and thinking about the web of earth, life, and man enters into the 21st century, a solid grounding on the classic texts that opened the road is all the more needed. This elegant new edition of Vernadsky's classic will be of value for the specialist, students and the public at large." -Francisco Varela, author of THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE