The Piltdown Hoax first began in the year 1912 in a southern English town where an archaeologist by the name of Charles Dawson claimed to have found an ancient human head and jaw bone. Along with Charles Dawson, was Arthur Smith Woodworth, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who were witnesses among Dawson's discoveries. These discoveries were very significant among scientists in the community because remains of primitive humans had been found in France, Germany, and Asia, but none in England. After World War II, scientists began measuring fluorine content which helped them put a date to the fossils they discovered. In 1953, scientists conducted a full scale analysis that showed that the fossils discovered by Charles Dawson were nothing what he claimed them to be. Through the full scale analysis, scientists learned that the staining on the bones were superficial. The jaw bone that Dawson found dated back less than 100 years ago from a female Orangutan. When the Piltdown Hoax was made public, it was assumed that Woodworth was not involved due to the fact that he continued to search for fossils after Dawson's death and found nothing. As for Pierre, he was silent when the hoax was exposed but he was not involved in the situation long enough to have known of the findings being fake.
In this scenario, the human faults that were committed was Dawson craving recognition and a title among the scientists during that time. Another fault that came into play was the fact that many people had suspicions regarding Dawson's findings but kept them to themselves which could have prevented 40 years of believing false information.
The positive aspects of the scientific process that were responsible was testing the fluorine content that allowed scientists to figure out when fossils dated back to. This was an essential part in discovering the truth about the Piltdown Man hoax. Unfortunately, it is not possible to remove the "human" factor from science to reduce the chance of errors because it is human nature for errors to occur. I would not want to remove the human factor from science because it is the human factor that has been a huge contributor that has brought science to the point that it is at today.
A lesson learned from this historical event is that regardless of the title of a person, the facts must always be shown in order to verify. Those with a high title or that are known for having a high intelligence are human and humans can be motivated by emotions that can sometimes be unjust towards others but will work in their favor. Facts and evidence will always overpower a high status of a person.
Overall, good summary. If Piltdown had been a valid find, what would it have told us about human evolution? Why was Woodward so interested in it?
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of questions about who was the culprit or culprits behind this hoax. We really don't know if Dawson was the source of if he was a dupe himself. He was an amateur and there is a lot doubt that he could have pulled this off himself. While he probably did crave fame and recognition, this doesn't necessarily mean he created the hoax.
You allude to another human fault in the first paragraph, namely national pride. No other early human find had been discovered in England before. This may have made the British scientific community more reluctant to challenge the find as they should.
Other than new technology, are there any other characteristics of the scientific process itself that led to the uncovering of this hoax?
I agree that it is the positive aspects of the human factor that have helped science progress. Can you identify some of these aspects?
Good final section.
I like your conclusion that these men had high titles and were seen as very intelligent and this lead to a lack of verification because it ties into what said earlier that people kept there suspicions to themselves. Many times people don't want to question those in power because of the stigma that comes with it, this stigma could have ruined the reputation of some and took away credibility on future studies. Also it is such a shame that even well educated people like this would lie for their own personal gain even at the cost of hurting the scientific community.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your blog post because I totally agreed with it. When you were talking about the human traits and if they should or should not be apart of the scientific process, in my opinion was precisely right. I also feel like human factors help contribute to what science is today. Like you, I think that human factors can actually do more good than harm. I don't think that we can take one bad situation and make it effect our future.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked your conclusion. It was somewhat similar to mine and others that I read, but yours had extra substance which made it a little more interesting. I think that all people seem to forget the even those of status are still human and can in fact make mistakes. We need not to be so quick to hop on board about something just because someone with a title brought it up.
Your last sentence really made me think because it is so true. No matter your class, status, or power, the facts are always going to be the most important and are going to overpower whatever is being said.