This course will prepare advanced undergraduate and graduate students for research in a variety of scientific fields that incorporate aspects of biogeochemical cycles through deep space and time. We will use an English version of the 1926 text “The Biosphere,” by Vladimir Vernadsky (1863-1945), the grandfather of the field, to examine the major discoveries in our field over the last century by reading seminal research articles, with one student assigned to lead each paper discussion. This course will alternate between lecture and discussion. Lectures will focus on one or more broad concepts and their connections to Vernadsky. Each lecture will conclude with a brief description of one step in a biogeochemical cycle.

The course project will consist of an individual science communication project to be made publicly available by the end of the semester. Students have a choice of either (i) improving a Wikipedia page on a biogeochemical cycle (other than carbon); (ii) translating a seminal paper in the field of biogeochemistry to English that is written in another language (paper must not currently be available in English translation); or (iii) creating an original scientific figure/illustration of a biogeochemical cycle.