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Life sciences in the system of scientific knowledge lenia ago. But for chemical and physical properties, for the description of minerals, for geographical phenomena, etc. this had been only done during the past three centuries. Since the late 19th century, the inert natural bodies of the biosphere, including animals and plants, began to be studied quantitatively, and the obtained numbers is permanently growing and is now measured by millions. In biogeochemistry, such are the weight numbers of living substance, its reproduction indices, biogeochemical energy of colonizing of the Earth, the right- and leftness (expressed quantitatively). When the idea on the living substance obtained in this way had been compared with the numerically characterized inert (or bioinert) natural bodies of the biosphere, it became clear that (1) such a comparison is possible (from a purely logical viewpoint, it had been admitted even before) and (2) there exists a sharp, material, energetic difference between the living and inert natural bodies. There is an incessant biogenic exchange of atoms and power between living and inert natural bodies of the biosphere, but with relation to the structure and property, these two groups of natural bodies differ greatly. This difference is a scientific fact, or rather a scientific generalization. Its result is the negation of the spontaneous generation of living oiganisms from the inert natural bodies under the modem or ever existing during all the geological time, i.e. 2 billion years. Under the influence of philosophical (but not scientific) considerations, this is not recognized by many scientists, and the concept of abiogenesis is widespread throughout the philosophical and popular scientific literature. The experiments on abiogenesis continue during hundreds of years and up to now In biogeochemistry, the absence of transition between the living and inert bodies is an empirical scientific generalization and not a hypothesis or theoretical construction. This empirical generalization may be formulated as follows: There is no transition between the living and inert natural bodies of the biosphere; the boundary between them is sharp and clear during all geological history. In the material—energy relation, in the geometrical structure, a living natural body, a living organism is distinct from an inert natural body. The substance of the biosphere 214
consists of two states, distinct with reference to matter and energy : the living state and the inert state. Materially, the living substance is insignificant in the biosphere; energetically, it is the most important agent in it. By this a new very significant quality of the biosphere is defined: its geometrical heterogeneity. One may admit, as we shall see in § 138, that the living substance has a non- Euclidean geometry. 136. Before we proceed further, it is necessary to try at an analysis of the main data concerning our understanding of life, and to introduce some new concepts. I have already talked about the existence of the bioinert natural bodies (§123). Here, we must dwell on them in several words. I have recently said that even the biosphere itself may be viewed upon as a bioinert body. Essentially, every organism is a bioinert body. Not all his components are living. During his nutrition and respiration some inert bodies get to him. They are quite inalienable of him. Either they get to him as foreign bodies, mechanically, being not necessary for the organism; or their significance is not understood by us. If one calculates the weight and chemical composition of a living organism in the biosphere, one cannot ignore these foreign substances always forming a component of the organism. There is not an organism in the biosphere without them. These substances reflect a kind of biogenic migration of atoms (the main phenomenon studied by biogeochemistry) and therefore must be taken (in mean numbers) into consideration when a set of organisms is analyzed. I shall not rest on this or prove it, but I shall adduce one or two examples. Worms or holothuriae perpetually contain inside their bodies soil or silt whose weight is a noticeable part of their body weight. In the organism, this soil (silt) forthwith undergoes many biochemical reactions. Without such seemingly foreign substances these organisms do not exist in the biosphere for a second: in other words, they cannot live without them. In biogeochemistry, we ought to take these organisms as such that they are, and not purified and freed from these substances that always are present in them. This is a very ocular demonstration, but in every living organism there are components which, strictly speaking, may not be viewed, upon (taken separately) as living ones in the process of 215
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V. I. Vernadsky SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT
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CONTENTS Preface A. L. Yanshin, F.
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ens through the creation (by him) o
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new species of diatoms, and the oce
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Analogous were the comments of othe
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his studies!” sounded. This was t
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approached an analysis of the struc
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dreds of thousands publications, in
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to the Earth as a set of simplest f
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11. Rational transformation of the
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Section one SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT AND
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phenomena whose manifestations in t
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evealed itself to the scientific kn
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changes it, while with respect to w
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consciousness) of the belief in the
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significance because it has created
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glacial phenomena become intensifie
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Geometrically, the rightness and th
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created. The history of scientific
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the geological time. Whereas under
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more precise an inference made much
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assert it with confidence) that thr
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scientific definition and elucidati
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hundred years) of this duration. Fi
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man from the Southern England in th
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is not a new one, and by the late 1
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Regrettably, the condition of the h
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the spiritual manifestation of the
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destruction not of its armed partic
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the dominating race. Their ideal is
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Firstly, the history of the mankind
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the scientific knowledge within the
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entists never were such people of a
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from the actions outside the scient
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Maxwell, Lavoisier, Ampere, Faraday
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protists, fungi, and micro-organism
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morphological structures of the lif
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with the manifestation not of the c
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these migrations— navigation), th
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42. Our knowledge in this area are
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Europe, this idea went into life du
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it. Probably these demands emerged
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46. But at the same time in the ext
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time received its scientific philos
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scholars and writers that, in their
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enormous, explosion-like (as to its
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essentially belong to the other reg
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Of course, theoretical construction
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The concepts of the quantity, of th
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several months before that. The fir
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and seeks a scientific explanations
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In the history of religions (which
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self-dependent thought in India beg
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dynasties, China formed steady rese
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The problem is that there is a phen
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continuously growing which became e
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later, but still within a reasonabl
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e accomplished in a spontaneous way
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of China and Mongolia. K. Marx, an
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the rise and to the pressure of the
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ated in scientific milieu and unsat
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The idea of a “scientific brain t
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man profoundly and completely: in t
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Thus, the main indubitable eternal
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America, first of all, in connectio
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of science and dependent on it. Suc
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82. From the said it is clear that
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over natural bodies, and over parti
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after a many-century interruption a
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A close connection between philosop
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thought of the Greeks, though incom
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A. D. the cultural exchange between
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Academy of Plato, his teacher, who
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and most usual tool. The technique
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thought, and this movement manifest
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that time, the most intense and pro
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of science in many areas. But in su
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chemical physics. The physical acce
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envelope lying at the frontier of t
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es constantly. Theoretically speaki
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exceeds the boundaries of the biosp
Page 165 and 166: 101. It is clear from the above sai
Page 167 and 168: nature; and even when it does, the
Page 169 and 170: ing organisms are included into the
Page 171 and 172: eproduction of man, the development
Page 173 and 174: millions, for 1915—645 millions.
Page 175 and 176: the contemporary human population o
Page 177 and 178: The most probable cause is a series
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Page 183 and 184: on the plains of China than on any
Page 185 and 186: created: the surface of the Earth a
Page 187 and 188: latitudes, from what is now Morocco
Page 189 and 190: agenda. This question is tied up wi
Page 191 and 192: We see and know (but we know it at
Page 193 and 194: Section four LIFE SCIENCES IN THE S
Page 195 and 196: determine exactly and scientificall
Page 197 and 198: (simple or complex), any soil, silt
Page 199 and 200: identical causes: the absence of th
Page 201 and 202: 125. Although later I shall return
Page 203 and 204: space-time as an indissoluble whole
Page 205 and 206: tific investigation is real. The si
Page 207 and 208: It is best seen in the treatment of
Page 209 and 210: departure, this work may go more de
Page 211 and 212: to biogeochemical energy. Its meani
Page 213 and 214: Unfortunately this name, very impro
Page 215: only indicate to the existence of n
Page 219 and 220: nomenon, as a fact when one takes t
Page 221 and 222: The concept of the “space state
Page 223 and 224: X. The living organisms possessing
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Page 227 and 228: Here is this summary. The inert nat
Page 229 and 230: One may express it so: this composi
Page 231 and 232: CHAPTER X Biological sciences ought
Page 233 and 234: Life sciences in the system of scie
Page 247 and 248: economics, but likewise in that of
Page 249 and 250: the inert and bio-inert mass of the
Page 251 and 252: nificance of this phenomenon with t
Page 253 and 254: ical tragedy through which we live,
Page 255 and 256: Reynolds’ persistence, the expedi
Page 257 and 258: From left to right: sitting - N.D.Z
Page 259 and 260: The lastmost photograph of V.I.Vern
Page 261 and 262: Participated in the second session
Page 263 and 264: provinces for mineralogical researc
Page 265 and 266: on the studies of permafrost of the
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ecological programmes and for gas-
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