The Piltdown Hoax is probably one of the
greatest mysteries in the science community. It all started in 1912 in an English
village called Piltdown. A scientist named Charles Dawson was digging in a
gravel pit when he discovered a piece of an ancient human skull. Dawson invited
his friend Arthur Woodward to help him in the dig. Woodward was England’s
leading geologist. Father Pierre
Teilhard who trained as a paleontologist also wanted in on the dig. The thing is that fossils of possibly early
humans were found in France, Germany, and Asia but no remains were ever found
in England. Dawson then discovered a jawbone in the gravel pit, it was almost
like an ape jawbone but the teeth were worn flat like a humans. This find could
be our early ancestor and is the missing puzzle piece between humans and
primates.
In
December 1912 the Royal Geology Society in England had praised the find.
Woodward was happy because it became evidence for his theory that big brains evolved
first in primate compared to upright walking, even though today we know the truth
is opposite the fact that upright walking came before brains.
In 1916
Charles Dawson dies, and it’s strange that after his death there are no more
fossils found at the dig in Piltdown. Thru 1920 there are many early fossils
found of possible early humans, but the fossils found are more ape and not more
human like the Piltdown skull. The thing is that the Piltdown is supposed to be
older than the fossils found in Asia Africa and something wasn’t making sense.
The problem was that the Natural History Museum was not letting any outsiders
near the Piltdown man skull, so it could not be tested. It was kept under lock
and key and heavily guarded.
After
World War II, there was new technology in the science community. They discovered that by measuring the Fluorine
content if the fossils that were found scientist could roughly determine and
date the finds. In 1949 this type of
test was done on the Piltdown man and it was discovered that the Jaw was not
even 100 years old, and it was from a female Orangutan. The teeth in the Jaw
had been filed down to make flat with some type of tool. The Artifacts had even
been stained to make them appear older than they were.
This was a shock to the science community, but the thing was
that scientists are supposed to be scholars and Gentleman and I think they are
usually trusted, but this changed the society’s opinion. Sure they all had
motives to do what they did, but till this day we still do not know who is
responsible for the Hoax. I think that Dawson was a guidable man and didn’t have
no idea what was going on. Then you have Woodward, the fid would of helped
support his theories but then after Dawson died, Woodward still continued to
dig at the site. If you were the one who made the fraudulent skull, then why
would you continue to dig? Then there is Dawson’s assistant Martin Hinton, who didn’t
really have a motive, but they did find a trunk belonging to Hinton with bones
with the same stain as the Piltdown find.
So we still don’t know who the mastermind was behind probably the
greatest fraud of all time, and until we have father testing we still may never
know the whole truth.
The
life lesson we have learned from this is only this, great science depends on
objectivity. Once a scientist’s national pride and self-interest comes into that
objectivity is obscured. Scientist have become highly vulnerable as a result of
this and are susceptible to lies, cheats, and deception. The only good thing
that came from this Hoax, is that when something comes into science it will not
be believed until there is evidence. We are just lucky that we have the
technology today that can test a hypothesis in many different ways to determine
the authenticity and weed out the fakes. The “Human” factor cannot be removed
from science, because we indeed are all human who makes mistakes but as long as
we learn from our mistakes we will be fine and succeed.
The science community greatly depends on the authenticity to verify scientific research as you state. We have learned throughout the years new testing and tools to help weed out the falsities. Unfortunately, we are learning it becomes more and more difficult to identify the falsities. As science and technology develop, so do the individuals who choose to gain from providing false material as the real deal.
ReplyDelete"This find could be our early ancestor and is the missing puzzle piece between humans and primates."
ReplyDeleteYes, it could have been an early ancestor, but it is a misconception to suggest that any hominid fossil is a "missing puzzle piece" between humans and primates. This is another way of using the term "missing link" and is not a valid way of describing the significance of this find. Did you get a chance to review the background explaining the problems with this term?
"Woodward was happy because it became evidence for his theory that big brains evolved first in primate compared to upright walking..."
That, right there, is the significance of this find (had it been valid). It would have explained *how*, not *if*, humans evolved from a common ancestor with non-human apes. This is an important distinction to understand. Otherwise, good synopsis. Good description, in particular, of the more recent fossil finds and how they seemed to contradict Piltdown.
We may not know who specifically perpetrated the hoax, but we can still speculate as to the human faults that might have lead to the creation and acceptance of the hoax, correct? Faults such as greed or ambition could explain why the hoax was committed and national pride by British scientists could help to explain why this find was accepted so readily, without the scrutiny it deserved.
Good description of the technology involved in uncovering the hoax. Other than better technology, what about the scientific method itself helped to uncover the hoax? Why were scientists still investigating this find some 40 years after it was uncovered?
The issue of the "human factor" seemed like a bit of an afterthought in the post, and you seem to only see the negative aspects. Do humans bring any positive traits to the process of science that you would not want to lose, such as curiosity, ingenuity and intuition? Could we even do science without these positive human factors?
Good life lesson.
This post was vey to the point, and very easy to follow.
ReplyDeleteYour life lesson, I can strongly agree with.
I think that science has made a lot of progress because of mistakes, and although the hoax was a negative effect for the name of science-it helped a lot for the technology of science and to help pave the road for new discoveries and to understand and date fossils, and other artifacts for evolution.
Great post I like how thorough you were with the details including the war and how it created new technology . You are right about making mistakes it does make is stronger you can't succeed without failing and that is the only way you can progress.
ReplyDeletethank you
ReplyDelete