1. The Piltdown Hoax occurred in 1912 in Piltdown, East Sussex, England. Charles Dawson claimed to have found a piece of a jaw fossil from an early human and invited Arthur Smith Woodward and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to excavate with him. Martin Hinton was a student at the time who also joined in the excavation. The hoax was discovered when testing the "fossils" found stains on the teeth and bones along with random carvings. The teeth were also carved down to look like human teeth. The fossils were less than 50,000 years old when tested, proving they could not be a species with ape like features.
2. Human faults that came into play were two things. Firstly, Dawson did not examine the fossils more closely and study them to make sure they were authentic due to lack of technology, if they were actually real and he did not plant them. Secondly, Hinton, who may have planted the fake fossils and were responsible for the whole thing, went along with the hoax and changed scientific history. This changes the scientific process because now people are weary when it comes to believing scientist because they could be hoaxing us again.
3. Positive aspects that were responsible for revealing the skull to be a fraud were new technological tools and processes. Kenneth Oakley ran a series of fluorine tests to accumulate the calcium matter in the teeth to date the fossils. Microscopes and magnifying glasses were used to zoom in on the teeth to reveal that they were filed down to simulate human teeth.
4. I feel it is impossible to remove the human factor from science. Especially when it comes to finding fossils, humans are the ones who are capable of digging them up and examining them. The technology plays an important part in identifying the fossils, but humans put their research together and come to the ultimate conclusion. I would not remove the human from science due to that very reason.
5. I have learned that you cannot judge a book by its cover: you cannot believe something unless you yourself look into it and find out for sure whether or not it is true and pure. I believe that only you as an individual has the ability to sell you on the truth and make you believe in something after you have done all your research.
Another helpful website:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/science-of-natural-history/the-scientific-process/piltdown-man-hoax/
I agree, but its hard to say that we cant believe anything until we trust or verify it ourselves. So credibility plays a large roll in our everyday lives, there comes a point when we have to trust that the other credible sources have conducted their research. I agree that the human factor should not be removed, after all the humans are the reason we are doing these studies anyways.
ReplyDeleteWhat theory did the the Piltdown hoax support? Had it been true, what would it have told us about the process of human evolution? What type of bones was the hoax created from?
ReplyDeleteYou do well to point out some of the problems behind the hoax. Don't forget that Dawson might have actually been the culprit. We aren't sure. What was happening on the international scientific scene that might have encouraged the acceptance of this find so unquestioningly?
Good description on the processes that helped uncover the hoax. What qualities of the scientific process itself led to the truth?
Good discussion on the human factor and I agree with your life lesson. On that note, I agree with Ryan as well. It is unlikely that we will always be able to trust and verify ourselves. But we can always be skeptical and continually question and we can be careful about who's opinion we accept as our own.
Except for a few points above, good post.
Hi Ashley!
ReplyDeleteYou made a lot of good points in your post. You did an excellent job when describing the process of identifying the fact that the fossils were a fraud, very thorough! I too agree that it is impossible to remove human factor from science and I wrote something similar in my post, but in regards to whether we can trust scientific research unless we see it ourselves, I have a different outlook! I believe that it is okay to trust other scientists research, however I think it is smart to have that research tested by different people and technology to ensure that it is in fact accurate or real; similar to the testing of a hypothesis to turn it into a theory. Great work and ideas in your post though!
The information you provided was really good. You had a lot of good details that I didn't know. I agree with you that one of the faults of this experiment was not studying the evidence more closely. I didn't know that the scientists used new tools to study this material. I, too, agree that it would be impossible to completely remove the human factor from science. That is an important life lesson learned here, don't judge a book by its cover. We shouldn't jump into conclusions right away without the proper evidence.
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