The astronomer who paid dearly for dissing Carl Sagan settled in at new U

Refurbishing the observatory

I asked young astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez how things were going, after Iowa State University rejected his tenure in a case that stank to high heaven.

He replied,

Things are going well. I've started an astronomy minor program here at Grove City College and the refurbishment of the college's new (old) observatory is essentially done. Here's our observatory web page.


While it is more difficult to find the time to do research here, I have managed to squeeze out a few papers (2 in 2010).

Remember that, folks. Trolls and their lackeys don't run the world (yet). You can still get in some good research and avoid their odious claptrap.




More on Gonzalez:

Gonzalez on mutual eclipse seasons in three planets during the International Year of Astronomy

Expelled astronomer publishes new paper in Royal Astronomy Society journal

Astronomer argues that we can test whether Earth is fine-tuned as a science lab

The truth hurts - and it can leave you seeing stars too

Study: Sun not special, therefore alien life should be common?

Privileged planet" astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez: Dissing St. Carl Sagan in his own church

Rehabilitating the idea of creation - Big Bang Cosmology

Podcast: Is the earth uniquely situated for scientific observation? Do we live on a privileged planet?On this 

episode of ID The Future we have a short clip about the book The Privileged Planet. In the book, authors Jay

 Richards and Guillermo Gonzalez suggest that earth was designed for scientific discovery. They introduce a new

 idea that more than just being rare in the universe, the earth is ideally located for scientific observation.

Go here to listen.

Guillermo Gonzalez on mutual eclipse seasons in three planets during the International Year of Astronomy

Gonzalez, author of Privileged Planet, has a new academic publication here.

Here's the abstract:

Mutual eclipses in the solar system

Guillermo Gonzalez 1

Copyright © 2009 Royal Astronomical Society

ABSTRACT
Guillermo Gonzalez notes another astronomical reason why IYA2009 is special: mutual eclipse seasons at Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.

Abstract

Eclipses between the major moons of Jupiter and Saturn are occurring this year. The circumstances of these eclipses are compared to terrestrial solar eclipses. Suggestions for observing these events are presented.

The truth hurts ... and it can leave you seeing stars, too ...

My profile of astronomer and ID theorist Guillermo Gonzalez has been posted at Salvo:

I first met Guillermo Gonzalez in a hotel coffee shop in June 2005, the morning after the Smithsonian screening of The Privileged Planet. This controversial film, based on Gonzalez’s book of the same name (co-authored with Jay Richards), advances the view that the Earth is one lucky planet in terms of sustaining life, as well as unusually well-located for exploring our galaxy.

Gonzalez is quite appreciative of this latter quality. Apart from his recent marriage, exploring the galaxy pretty much sums up his life. After all, it was not long after arriving in the United States as a young Cuban refugee that he first discovered astronomy. “People who are into astronomy get into it very early,” he likes to explain. “It’s such a beautiful science.”

Gonzalez had more than an interest in astronomy; he had a gift. He quickly became a recognized expert in exoplanets—planets that orbit stars other than our sun. He published paper after paper, never realizing how much he was hated at Iowa State University—based solely on The Privileged Planet.

Why is this film so controversial?

Read the rest here.

Subscribe to Salvo if you would like a culture and science mag that assumes you have a mind, not just a collection of buzzing neurons.

"Privileged planet" astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez: Dissing St. Carl in his own church

My Deprogram column in just-published Salvo 5 deals with "privileged planet" astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, who discovered, at Iowa State University that when atheism goes head-to-head with science in a politically correct environment, atheism wins hands down:

The Privileged Planet takes on the assertion of popular-astronomy saint Carl Sagan that Earth is merely a “pale blue dot”—both insignificant and wholly unremarkable. It clearly explains Sagan’s arguments for such, and then provides overwhelming evidence that they are false. Gonzalez thought that in doing so, his film was merely setting the science record straight.

But no. For the secular elite, Gonzalez—a Christian—is a dangerous heretic. He was dissing St. Carl in his own church, the Smithsonian. To the elite, “religion” is okay if you just stupid-holler for Jesus. But it is dangerous if you provide evidence against materialism.

It certainly proved so for him. Despite an excellent publication record, he was denied tenure.

For me, the telling feature of this story is ... the steady stream of mediocrities who write to me and demand that I recognize that Gonzalez does not deserve tenure.

As a journalist, I try to be evenhanded, but I struggle with a profound distaste for these people. ... Their vicious comments are their odious legacy, whereas Gonzalez’s research is his.

Gonzalez is also featured in the Expelled film, and, from my mailbox today, in a podcast on Intelligent Design: the Future in which he talks about Sagan's

Copernican Principle and his latest research on extrasolar planets. Is our place in the universe special or purposeful? Listen in as Dr. Gonzalez answers that question and shares his future research plans.

He is now at Grove City College in Pennsylvania.

Study: Sun not special - therefore alien life should be common?

New Scientist's Hazel Muir tells us (May 22, 2008), reporting on recent research: "Sun's properties not 'fine-tuned' for life", adding

The finding adds weight to the idea that alien life should be common throughout the universe.

I am not sure how one can add "weight" to an idea, but never mind. Re the sun:

With his ANU colleague José Robles and others, Lineweaver has now analysed 11 features of the Sun that might affect its ability to have habitable planets. They included its mass, age, rotation speed and orbital distance from the centre of the Milky Way.

Then they compared these with well-measured statistics for other stars to answer the question – overall, does the Sun stand out from the crowd any more than some other randomly chosen star would?

The Sun did stand out in two ways: it is more massive than 95% of nearby stars and its orbit around the centre of our galaxy is more circular than those of 93% of nearby stars.

This research (in press at Astrophysical Journal) contradicts Guillermo Gonzalez's "privileged planet" hypothesis concerning the sun, so I asked him about it:

Lineweaver concludes that even though the Sun is obviously exceptional in two properties he considers (mass and Galactic orbit -- both of which I have pointed out in previous papers), it is not exceptional when you consider it in the context of 11 properties. Of course, this is not the correct conclusion. Not only is the Sun exceptional in these two properties (and probably one or two others), there are good reasons to believe that the Sun's mass and Galactic orbit need to be close to their actual values for life.

It's not clear whether Muir thinks that the alien life that should be common throughout the universe would be intelligent, complex (but perhaps not intelligent), or simple.

Lineweaver's approach is reminiscent of Carl Sagan's Copernican Principle (there must be lots of Them out there by definition, because otherwise, we would be unique). And - to judge from the Top 10 admittedly "controversial" pieces of evidence for extraterrestrial life accumulated so far (September 4, 2006) - the New Scientist staff can survive on regular infusions of hope.

One underlying assumption is that life will evolve under favourable conditions. The doctrine of the common ancestry of life on Earth would seem to suggest, however, that even where conditions are favourable, it is hardly a common event.

Also: Science and ethics: When the devil offered a no strings research post.

Nature's IQ: Intelligent design from a Hindu perspective

Science journalist warns against the "institutionalised idolatry of science"

Expelled film pre-trashed by United Kludgies of Canada (Trashing a film you haven't seen is way less work.)

Is everything determined by forces over which we have no control?

On Jane Goodall, apes, human uniqueness, and God