From minerals to living organisms
Vernadsky studied mineralogy, crystallography and geochemistry, including the distribution and movement of elements. He extended that question to organisms: how does life absorb, concentrate and redistribute chemical elements?
In 1928 he founded and became director of the Biogeochemical Laboratory of the USSR Academy of Sciences, providing an institutional base for studying these connections.
References: [1]
The Biosphere of 1926
Eduard Suess had already introduced the name biosphere. Vernadsky developed a biogeochemical interpretation of it, treating the inhabited region of the planet as a region continually transformed by living activity.
The Russian book appeared in 1926 and a French edition in 1929. The revised English translation of 1998 places the original work alongside later commentary, helping distinguish its historical arguments from subsequent findings.
References: [2]
Life within material cycles
The original book connects incoming solar energy, living activity and chemical changes in the crust. Its category of living matter concerns the collective geological activity of organisms rather than one species considered in isolation.
The movement of atoms through uptake, growth, death and decomposition links organisms with their surroundings. At this scale, soils, sediments, atmosphere and life become connected parts of a single research problem.
References: [2]
A research programme across disciplines
Vernadsky worked across mineralogy, biology and Earth science and maintained international contacts through research and teaching in France, Germany and other European countries. Translation and later ecological scholarship helped circulate his biosphere argument.
The programme made organisms participants in geological processes. Its historical importance does not make every particular claim in the original book a current scientific conclusion; the text must also be read in its original evidential setting.