1. The Pildown hoax was one of the biggest hoax in scientific history, if not the biggest. In 1912 a fossil that was believed to be the earliest human relative known to man was unearthed in Pildown England by a man named, Charles Dawson. During this time period across Europe scientists were finding many new evidence of early human relatives, such as fossils, tools, and paintings. While other countries were making these amazing discoveries, England still hadn't made a significant discovery of any sorts. So when Charles Dawson and his team uncovered a fossilized jaw bone and a tooth of what was perceived to be the earliest man alive in England it made world news. It wasn't until around 40 years later that scientists were able to measure the fluorine content the bones and discovered that both bones were much younger than they were expected to be. The jaw bone actually turned out to be a female orangutans jaw that was stained to look aged. The tooth was also just filed down and painted over to fit the characteristics of a human tooth.
2. People have a lot of faults especially when it comes to being envious and competitive. I think that Charles Dawson and other scientists in England wanted to show other countries, especially Germany that they were number one and that the English were technically here first. These faults negatively impacted the scientific process because people wanted to believe that these were the actual remains of our ancestors that the proper tests to verify how old the bones actually are.
3. 40 years later in measured the fluorine content and revealed that the fossil was not old enough to be the earliest human relative on Earth. But it wasn't until a few years later that scientists did a full scan of the fossils and discovered that the tooth was filed down and painted and the jaw was stained to look older than what it truly was.
4. I don't think that it is possible to remove the "human" factor out of science, but i do think that we can prevent these human errors more by recording and double checking evidence.
5. A lesson I could take from the Pildown hoax would be to always not believe everything and to do your own research before making assumptions. There's a lot of people and establishments that will say anything to have your support, and out of greediness.
Missing a description of Piltdown itself. What bones were found? What was unique about them? Who else besides Dawson was involved? What was the response of the scientific community? This was a very involved event and more detail could have been provided for your reader.
ReplyDeleteYes, this was significant because it was the first hominid found on English soil, but there was also *scientific* significance. Had Piltdown been valid, it would have helped us better understand *how* humans (not *if*) evolved from that common ancestor with non-human apes. Piltdown was characterized by large cranium combined with other more primitive, non-human traits, suggesting that the larger brains evolved relatively early in hominid evolutionary process. We now know this to be incorrect, that bipedalism evolved much earlier with larger brains evolving later, but Piltdown suggested that the "larger brains" theory, supported by Arthur Keith (one of the Piltdown scientists) was accurate.
Do you really think Dawson (if he did create Piltdown... we still aren't sure about this) perpetrated this hoax for the good of England? Might he not have been driven by more personal goals, such as ambition or fame or greed? Otherwise, I agree that national pride likely played a role in convincing the scientific community to look the other way.
Good job explaining the process that uncovered the hoax. But why were scientists still studying this find some 40 years after it was uncovered? What aspect of science does that represent?
You seem to be assuming all factors are negative. Is that the case? Do humans bring nothing positive to the scientific process? How about curiosity, ingenuity and innovation? Could we even do science without these factors?
Good life lesson.
Overall, I liked this post.
ReplyDeleteIt went into detail the story of the Piltdown bones and extensively discussed its debunking. I agreed with your statement that England definitely may have been too easy to accept the Piltdown bones just to get ahead of rival countries like Germany. I would have liked more elaboration on what you think the "human" factor in science really is. Are they just errors? I saw them more as the imperfect desires and motivations that can lead someone to make an important discovery or in this case, to fake such discovery.
The lesson learned applies strongly to today more than ever. "Fake news" is a trending topic, and it highlights how we as consumers of media should also take into consideration the legitimacy of the source we are receiving information from.