The PIltdown hoax was an attempt by English scientists to pass off fake fossil remains to prove their theories and achieve personal merit. Charles Dawson, a British archeologist claimed he had been given fossils of an early man. He claimed the fossils had been discovered in a gravel pit in east Sussex England. He bagman to find more until he claimed he had discovered a primitive man sort of missing link in the evolutionary chain. Dawson enlisted the help of Arthur Smith Woodward who was the keeper of the geological department at the British museum. Their conclusions were eventually proved incorrect. The bones had been from an orangutan and a modern human. The reputations and prior accomplishments of the men involved made it difficult to challenge but eventually science caught up and prevailed.
The scientists involved in the Piltdiwn Hoax had many flaws, they were driven by greed and arrogance.They were driven by aching notoriety in the scientific community, for such a discovery would be an extremely important finding. They had a blinding desire to be correct that any evidence in their favor was accepted without checking the facts.
The scientific method is set in motion instantly and intensely in findings like these. Scientist were observing and comparing it to other findings. They noticed skulls found in from periods much later had less brain matter. They used dating processes like measuring the fluorine content and found out the bones were much younger than advertised. Fossil claims are falsifiable and the piltdown fossils were easily proven wrong.
Science is the pursuit of facts. When we are not absolutely sure, when we haven't allowed for the entire scientific method to do it's work we do a disservice to society. We tend to believe what scientists tell us and if they are pretending it could result in horrible things. Imagine if a doctor prescribed a medicine that hadn't been tested because he decided it cured colds. If he's wrong the lack of testing could have harmful or even fatal effects on any number of people. Over time we have had many scientific misconceptions and will probably have many more but mistakes are greatly minimized when the scientific method is in place.
Do you think all the scientists involved in the Piltdown man fossils were consciously aware of the facade? Do you think any of them genuinely thought they were part of a really important discovery? Woodward might not have realized that the fossils were false. There weren't any testing measures at the time and his experience was with fish fossils, not human evolution. I like how you said "eventually science caught up and prevailed." Even though the human factor can not be eliminated completely, scientific evidence will prevail.
ReplyDeleteIf the Piltdown fossils were "easily proven wrong", then why did it take 40 years to uncover the hoax?
ReplyDeleteEven after the wrong conclusions were drawn in this case, science was still being conducted around the world. It was this research plus the new techniquest like florine analysis that eventually revealed the case to be a hoax.
What characteristics of human nature were involved in this case, either positive or negative? Would you like to take the human factor out of the process?
I didn't catch the part where the person directing the video says that the fossils were of a modern human as well. I thought it was just and orangutan's fossil and the teeth were filed down. I don't totally agree with the part where you say that if the scientific method was used more often then these kind of claims wouldn't be made. I would think that the scientific community does follow the scientific method especially in a case like this which was huge. Don't get me wrong, I do like your post and think you have very good points. Also, I don't think you talked about the human side in science and if would be good or bad to remove it if possible of course.
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