The Piltdown Hoax occurred in 1912 when a group of scientist discovered a fossil, believed to be of a human jaw bone. The group was led by an archaeologist named Charles Dawson. Along with Dawson there was a geologist by the name of Arthur Woodward, a paleontologist, Father Pierre Teilhard De Chardin and Arthur Keith. The discovery was made in "Louis", a small town in the village of Piltdown, in England. This was a major discovery, made by credited and respected scientist (At the time), and even though the location was not accurate according to other scientist, those other scientist didn't have the courage to challenge this discovery or the team who made the discovery. After Charles Dawson died, other fossils were discovered in the same general area and were submitted for testing and comparison. Those fossils were eventually compared to the fossils discovered by Dawson's team in 1912. During those scientific test, it was discovered that the fossil discovered by Dawson's team was in fact a jaw bone of a female orangutan.
I believe there were numerous human faults which came into play in this incident. Charles Dawson was an ambitious individual, and even thought this trait is a good trait to have most of the time, it appeared that this was not the case in this discovery. Dawson also appeared to be self-serving with minimal morals, ethics and integrity. Even though the above mentioned traits appeared to have played a large part in the incentives for the scientist making the discovery, it appears that jealousy was the main fault here. The fact that other surrounding countries had made "real" human fossil discoveries and England appeared to be falling behind, Dawson and his team might have felt that they needed to stay keep pace with other countries in the discovery of human fossils.
The fact that scientist were able to test Dawson's discovery and theories using the scientific method and were able to test and analyse the discoveries themselves is a positive aspect in the scientific process. Scientist used the accurate dating method to date the jaw bone discovered by Dawson and his team.
I don't believe you can take the "human factor" out of science. Humans are "Science" and science was made and studied by humans. Everything about the subject of science and the studies, to the individuals studying science has the humans factor in it. I wouldn't want to remove the human factor from science simply because you would also be removing the "common sense" factor among other important factors. Scientist need to have passion for their science and studies. They need to show that they care to get things right. Unless we start teaching machines emotions, we can't have "robots" and machines examining fossils, excavating sites, testing and gathering data and formulating and giving factual educated theories or opinions.
Throughout life, I have been taught to always stand up for what I believe in and, to never be afraid to challenge an opinion when that opinion affects me directly and if what I say or do would cause me, my family or my job any embarrassment or pain, than it's wrong . There is a code of ethics that we all live by, morals and integrity. If as humans we lack any of these traits than we don't stand a chance in society and are looked as "the bad guy" as proven by these four scientist who obviously lacked at minimum integrity. In this case, taking information without validating or verifying the results caused the field of science embarrassment and to question each others motive for the discovery. I believe that entire filed of science is to blame for this hoax not being discovered for such a long period of time. Even though some more accurate testing methods were not available at the time, there must of been other ways to verifying those results. It it falls on the science community to do that before making those results known. In today's studies, discoveries and theories, they are tested by other scientist and the data or results are verified before being published or made public.
Your post is good. I especially like you answer to the life lesson question. You wrote that there were numerous human faults in this event and you wrote a little about how the scientists' national pride led them to misleading other scientists but you didn't go in to much detail about how they influenced the scientific process. It would be interesting you read your thoughts on that.
ReplyDeleteThank you Emily. My thoughts on how they influenced the scientist process are really simple. I think this really put the pressure on scientist at the time and future scientist to try and falsify theories that were presented. By doing so, I believe that they were able to gain the public trust when new discoveries and results of new studies would come out to the public. I think the fact that the scientific process is used to verify information wipes a lot of doubt and critiques away and gives the scientific community their credibility and respect back.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed what you wrote, and I also agreed with your points in the human faults that were present when this discovery was forged. I also agree that you can take the human factor out of science. Your points about the human factor I think are explained really well. Overall I think this was a great post and some of the point you stated were really informative.
ReplyDeleteI think I need some clarification on the timeline in your summary. How long after the original find did they test the finds and discover they were a hoax? Were the new finds made at that time or shortly after the original find by Dawson? What was the significance of the find (had it been valid)? What would it have taught us about human evolution?
ReplyDeleteI think the fossils you speak of that were found later were not found at the same site but in other locations around the world. The Piltdown fossils just did not fit in with the evidence of other finds.
Good work pulling in the issue of national pride and trying to put England on the fossil map for human evolution. Take care not to assume Dawson was the only (or even prime) culprit here. He was an amateur paleontologist and it is difficult to believe that he alone could have fooled professional scientists. He may have just be a dupe himself.
Yes, the scientific process itself, in addition to new technology, is what led to the hoax being revealed, specifically the process of retesting existing work.
"Humans are 'science'". :-) Precisely. Without human curiosity, I don't think there would be science in the first place.
Good final section.
I agree that this whole incident drived from jealousy! If the British scientist werent so eager to find a ground breaking fossil that proved Britian had fossils of human speceies that explained evoloution of human life, they could of spent their time understanding the fossils that had been found around the world. This whole scenario took away from other scientist's finds, at least what I have read, that would of real helped expain human evolution and not set it back. Its always a matter of time until the truth is brought to the surface, so soon or a later their paln would of failed.
ReplyDelete