In 1912 an archaeologist names Charles Dawson announced that he had in his possession what appeared to be a piece of an ancient human skull found by a laborer in Piltdown. He invited England's leading geologist from the Natural History Museum, Arthur Smith Woodward and a French paleontologist, Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, to continue digging where the skull was found. That summer they made great finds at the site. Charles Dawson dug up a jaw bone from the skull which resembled the jaw bone of an ape, but with teeth that appeared to be human. This discovery was said the be the missing link named Piltdown Man. Woodward's prestige removed any doubt about Piltdown Man. The trio continued to dig and made more great finds which seemed to silence any critics of their doubts though no more fossils turned up after Charles Dawson died in 1916. After conducting a fluorine test on the Piltdown Man in 1949, the results showed how young the remains really were. In 1953 a full scale analysis was launched. It became evident that the artifact was stained, cut with a steel knife and the teeth were file down. The jaw bone actually came from a female orangutan. Charles Dawson became the prime suspect as nothing was found in Piltdown after his death. In 1975, carved bones were found in a trunk of a workman of the natural history museum forged the same way Piltdown man was.
I think the biggest fault of being human here is greed and jealousy. The want of being successful and admired can be too much for people at times and in this case was. With telling a lie about something like science, you slow down the forward progress other people are trying to make. Especially with a lie of this magnitude, people have to stop and notice and in turn try to build of what is now in front of them ultimately leading them nowhere.
As time goes on, more discoveries are made and these discoveries are used to aid us in whatever we may need. Such was the case in the Piltdown Man hoax. One being that you can measure fluorine content to roughly date an object will allowed scientist to realize that Piltdown Man was rather young. With that, better dating methods became available over time allowing a more accurate age of the jaw bone found. As well as technology used to better see the forgery with the jaw bone.
I don't think it is possible to remove the "human" factor from science, at least not completely. The furthest I think that we have been able to do that is with all the advances in science we have provided allowing the most precise accuracy in almost everything we do. Though this factor can be harmful, it's also the very thing that moves us along. The same need for success used the right way can become a need for knowledge and the truth rather than mere fame or glory. There are always going to be set backs when humans are involved, but these set backs are also what drive us in how they make us find better ways to verify any findings or thoughts people may have.
I think one big thing that can be taken from this is to always trust in facts over opinion. Opinions are good for initial thoughts or discoveries, but do not allow it to be your final way of looking or believing in something. Always want to be 100% sure, or as close to that, of anything you may question.
Overall, good opening summary. One caution... It is often mistakenly said that Piltdown represented the "missing link" between humans and apes (and I believe is even referred to this in the video) but that isn't really the key importance of this fossil, had it been valid. If you understand the continuous nature of human evolution, you should understand that all past hominids represent "links" between prior hominids and hominids to come. There is no "missing link" per se, but a whole chain that we are still currently discovering. We, ourselves, are links between our ancestors and humans to come.
ReplyDeleteSo if this is no single "missing link", why was it important to our understanding of human evolution? Why was Woodward so interested in it? What theory of human evolution did it support?
I agree that there were personal reasons/faults that led to this hoax, but were there bigger reasons related to international scientific and political relations? What was going on politically and scientifically at this time that might have contributed to this hoax being perpetuated?
Yes, ongoing research and other finds do offer clues into the validity of earlier finds. It is the actual process of returning and re-examining older finds that helps us uncover these hoaxes.
I agree that the drive for success can produce positive as well as negative results and that we couldn't do science without that drive and curiosity.
Interesting final section. I tend to agree, but Dawson and Woodward felt they were reporting facts, or at least convinced scientists that this is what they were reporting. So, the key is to check the facts!
I dont think we can remove the "human" factor either, to a certain extent we are the weakest link in the scientific process. It is our self centeredness or our own pride that many times will halt the scientific progress, then again it is the same mentality that pushes us to not conform to our present state of mind. I believe that regardless of how much we devote ourselves to streamlining our procedures and removing "man" from the scientific process, our inherent flawed curious nature will always be needed to fuel the progress of science. Great post :)
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