Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky — An outstanding historian of science and a pioneer of “the science of science”

•Vernadsky can be considered as both a natural scientist and historian of science.•He is one of the founders of the 'science of science'.•His biosphere and noosphere concepts base on the intrinsic connection of sciences.•He stated that scientific thinking is the interaction between theory and empiricism.

The presented study examines and evaluates the work of the Russian natural scientist Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1863–1945), one of the founders of the ‘science of science’. During his entire career Vernadsky's engagement with philosophical questions was strongly connected to his research as a natural scientist. The scientific background of his conceptual thinking in order to study the scientific work as a subject of ‘science of science’ from the viewpoint of natural science is discussed.