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Privileged planet
New book by astronomy's Guillermo Gonzalez looks at Earth's place
in the cosmos
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Guillermo Gonzalez, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, believes
that Carl Sagan was just plain wrong when he said: "Our planet is
a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark."
Sagan wrote that in his book, Pale Blue Dot, and popularized
the notion that Earth is metaphysically insignificant because it is small
and lacks geographic centrality. He termed it "The Principle of Mediocrity."
Gonzalez and co-author Jay Richards, vice president and senior fellow
of the Discovery Institute in Seattle, think otherwise. In their recently
released book, The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos
is Designed for Discovery published by Regnery Publishing, Inc.,
the pair argue that the Earth is not an insignificant speck in the vast
universe.
"This long-standing assumption is wrong and we believe the Earth
is a lot more significant than virtually anyone has realized," says
Gonzalez, who received a grant from the Templeton Foundation to help write
the book. "Not only are the conditions that allow for intelligent
life on Earth incredibly rare, but those same conditions also permit us
to view and measure the universe in an exceptionally well-designed way."
Through geology and astronomy to cosmology and physics, Gonzalez and Richards
present a vast array of evidence showing the same rare conditions that
allow for intelligent life on Earth also make it surprisingly well suited
for viewing and analyzing the universe.
Some of the issues that the pair look at in The Privileged Planet
include:
* How the Earth is positioned in the Milky Way not only for life,
but also to allow us to find answers to the greatest mysteries of
the universe. *
*Striking ways in which water doesn’t behave like most other
liquids - and how each of its quirks makes it highly fit for the existence
of creatures such as humans. "As it turns out, water is endowed
with life-support capacities lacking in other substances," Gonzalez
said. "Together these capacities make water the most anomalous
compound known to science."
*How Earth and the moon work together to sustain earthly life as
one intricate system.
*How the laws and constants that govern the universe must be narrowly
fine-tuned for life
*Why the sheer number and size of galaxies does not mean that Earth's
capacity to sustain life is just the result of blind chance.
"Isn't just one planet (Earth) all we need?" Gonzalez asks.
"Doesn't it seem like a waste
of space and materials to have all other barren worlds?
"Well, not if those worlds are players in the games of life and scientific
discovery," he continued. "In our book, we discuss how the other
planets serve as Earth's protectors while at the same time helping us
in our quest to learn about the nature of the cosmos."
The book has been endorsed by paleontologist Simon Conway Morris and astronomer
Owen Gingerich.
Gonzalez has extensive experience in observing and analyzing data from
ground-based observatories and has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles.
The Privileged Planet is available through Amazon. com. An accompanying
60-minute video documentary will be available in April.
Around LAS
April 5-18, 2004
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