NOOSPHERE

(from Greek nos, mind), in theoretical biology, that part of the world of life that is strongly affected by man's conceptual thought; regarded by some as coextensive with the anthroposphere. The nosphere, as proposed by scientific theorists Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, and douard Le Roy, is the level of the intellect, as opposed to the geosphere, or nonliving world, and the biosphere, or living world.