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VERNADSKY -- A MAN OF ENCYCLOPAEDIC KNOWLEDGE
By Alexander Yanshin,
Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences,
Chairman of the Commission on Academician
Vernadsky's Scientific Legacy
On March 12, 1988, the world scientific community will
mark the 125th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Vernadsky. More than
40 years have passed since this outstanding naturalist passed away, but
his ideas, as vital today as in his lifetime, have been a source of inspiration
for several generations of scientists. He is often called the Lomonosov
of the 20th century on account of his profound contribution to geochemistry,
cosmochemistry, biogeo-chemistry, genetic mineralogy, crystallography,
soil science, hydrochemistry and meteoritics. His research broadened our
knowledge about the biosphere. It was Vernadsky who predicted its inevitable
transformation into the noösphere under the influence of scientific
development and collective human activities. His ideas about evolution
have lost none of their practical value to this very day. As a result,
he is even closer to us than to his contemporaries who failed to appreciate
the significance of his biospheric concept and many other ideas. His analysis
of atomic power prospects bears out his phenomenal far-sightedness. The
phenomenon of radioactivity was discovered at the turn of the century.
Ten years later, in December 1910, Vernadsky made a report at the General
Assembly of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in which he predicted that
in a short while man would learn to control the disintegration rate which
would give him an unprecedented source of power. Few people agreed with
him then. He returned to the subject in 1922 and asked if mankind was
ready for the inevitable and early advent of atomic energy and whether
it will use this energy for its own good or for self-destruction.
He died on January 6, 1945, a few months before A-bombs hit Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. Being a scientist, it was not difficult for him to grasp
the true scope of the danger endemic to atomic weapons. But he believed
in common sense and, therefore, not only predicted the early advent of
the nuclear age, but even contributed to this. In 1911, he asked for an
expedition to be organized to prospect for radioactive ores. In 1922,
he founded Russia's first State Radium Institute. Under his direction,
the Institute got itself involved in radium prospecting and comprehensive
study of the phenomenon of radioactivity. Vernadsky deserves a great deal
of credit for the construction and startup of the first Soviet cyclotron
at the Institute in 1937. In 1939, when the Nazi threat became more ominous,
Vernadsky and some other scientists appealed to the Presidium of the Soviet
Academy of Sciences for the intensification of research into the atomic
nucleus. As a result, several special laboratories under the general direction
of Academician A. Ioffe were set up at the Academy's Physical Engineering
Institute in Leningrad. One of the laboratories had on its staff Igor
Kurchatov who drove the research effort to its practical form. But it
is obvious that without Vernadsky's groundwork there would have been no
Soviet A-bomb in 1946, the bomb that has cooled off the aggressive zeal
of certain imperialist forces.
Although Vernadsky's name is associated with many important scientific
breakthroughs, his most important discoveries have been made in the field
of biospheric studies. "Biosphere" is a much-used word today.
A special scientific council was set up at the Presidium of the Soviet
Academy of Sciences in 1973 to handle all problems associated with the
biosphere. [Academician Guri Marchuk, President of the Soviet Academy
of Sciences, directs an academic program for ecological and biospheric
studies.] But it should not be forgotten that the very name "biosphere"
was introduced by Vernadsky who, in 1926, published a monumental research
paper under this name. Some other works by Academician Vernadsky,
published after his death, are also devoted to biospheric studies.
According to Vernadsky, the biosphere is the envelop of the planet, which
sustains all life on Earth and is composed of the hydrosphere, lithosphere
and lower atmosphere. He scrupulously calculated the mass of all living
matter on the planet and how this figure had been changing in connection
with vegetation spreading throughout the globe, the amount of solar energy
consumed by vegetation and the amount wasted. He learned just how this
vegetation utilized this energy to convert carbon dioxide, water and mineral
salts into primary organic compounds from which rock and brown coal, combustible
shale, oil and gas all originated. He analyzed in detail the effect of
living matter on rock and mineral, how much they weather under its impact,
and on the basis of these data built a theory of the evolution of the
biosphere and its stages.
In his early research papers, dated to the end of the past century, he
showed how the geological and geographic environments changed under the
impact of anthropogenic activities. His conclusion was that human activities
have a much stronger impact on nature than the heaviest natural process.
Man's thoughtless actions, he warned, violate equilibriums that have developed
in nature over millennia. The truth of his analysis is borne out by the
aggravation of the ecological situation on the planet. But the Academician
was convinced that science and intelligence combined would find the means
to save the global biosphere and to guide its evolution in the desired
direction. As a result, he argued, the biosphere will pass on to a qualitatively
new stage of its development, which he conventionally called the noösphere
(Gk. noös -- mind). His theories now underlie nature conservation
measures in the USSR and the world over.
APN
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