The design of the universe and earth’s role in understanding it have been questioned by an ISU professor in his new book.

Guillermo Gonzalez, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, co-authored the book “The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery.”

In the book, Gonzalez argues Earth is scientifically significant because life-sustaining elements found here allow humans to explore and study the universe.

“The places in the universe that are the most habitable offer the best opportunity for scientific discovery of the universe,” he said. “This is a completely new argument, but based on publicly available scientific data.”

This argument is a rebuttal of astronomer Carl Sagan’s principle of mediocrity. The principle states that because of Earth’s small size and unimportant position, our planet is insignificant in the universe.

Gonzalez argues the Earth is important to the universe because elements known only on Earth allow life and scientific discovery.

Co-author Jay Richards, vice president and senior fellow of the Discovery Institute in Seattle, said one implication of Sagan’s theory is the idea of the universe being created only by chance. He said “Privileged Planet” argues against this notion.

“We’re not trying to prove the existence of God, but we’re trying to show some purpose to the universe,” he said.

Inspiration for Gonzalez came nearly a decade ago. Gonzalez said he went on an expedition in India to view a solar eclipse in 1995. After viewing the eclipse, Gonzalez said he realized the elements needed to view the eclipse — such as the moon, atmosphere and distance to the sun — are the same elements that are vital to sustaining life on Earth.

He wrote an article for the magazine Astronomy and Geophysics that considered the connection between life-sustaining elements on Earth and the ability to view the eclipse.

“I asked, ‘Is [the connection] just a strange coincidence, or does it follow throughout the physical sciences?'” he said. “The book expands on that question.”

Richards said he was interested in Gonzalez’s ideas after reading a piece he did about extraterrestrial life. The two began to meet and discussed the topic Gonzalez raised in his article.

“We became friends and talked about it for a long time,” he said. “We decided it could be a really interesting research project.”

Richards’ background in philosophy and his own background in astrobiology complemented each other well for the book, Gonzalez said.

“I did primarily the scientific work, and he did the philosophical and historical work, but we both helped each other out,” he said. “I can’t think of another book where a scientist and a philosopher collaborated like this.”

The usefulness of the book even reaches into the classroom, Gonzalez said. Since much of the book discusses basic scientific equations, it could be used as a supplement in classes at Iowa State. Gonzalez said he has already begun to use some aspects of the book to complement his lectures in his astronomy class.

Although the book may be useful in the classrooms, both hope their book is well-received in the scientific community.

“Every author hopes their book will be discussed and raise questions,” Richards said. “We hope it will start discussions and get people talking about the subject.”

Gonzalez was confident the material presented in the book will receive attention.

“We have presented a powerful argument, with science, on the design of the universe,” he said.