Piltdown Hoax Blog Post
1. The Piltdown hoax was a hoax in which bone fragments were found and believed to be an early unknown human ancestor. In 1912 Charles Dawson claimed to have found the ‘missing links’ between apes and humans in the city of Piltown, England. The scientific community, especially the English scientific community, thought the bone fragments coined as the Piltdown Man as the jewel of London’s Natural History Museum. It wasn’t until 1953 that the Piltdown Man was revealed to be a hoax. When scientist examined the Piltdown Man under a microscope, they found evidence that the ‘fossils’ were merely a forged orangatang bone.
2. Humans are very emotional. Scientist got carried away with the Piltdown Man. English scientist were excited about having a early human ancestor found in England. They were too rash with their discovery. The Piltdown Man misled the image of human evolution for forty years.
3. Scientist in 1949 used a fluorine to roughly determine the age of the Piltdown Man. The results showed that the ‘fossils’ were around hundred million years old which was inconsistent with other fossil records. Scientist also examined the fossils under microscope to find that the teeth in the bones were filed downed.
4. Human factors can be removed from the scientific process. In 2009 the BBSRC created a Robot scientist which independently discovered new scientific knowledge. However, I believe scientist should not remove the human factor completely from science. Humans are very creative and I believe the human factors are the reasons for Einstein's General Relativity and Newton’s Laws of motion.
5. This historical event taught me to question everything. Even the greatest scientist of our day could be completely wrong. I believe humans should never be 100% sure of anything they should always be questioning themselves constant. When an individual is 100% certain then that individual believes there nothing else to know about that problem.
posted by Unknown @ 8:18 PM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
Okay on your synopsis, but perhaps a little simplified? Was the fossil only orangutan bones? Who else was involved other than Dawson? Why was the English scientific community in particular so happy to accept this fossil find as their own (you kind of explain this in the second section, but not completely)? This is a very complex story and could have been elaborated.
Did you get a chance to review the information regarding that term in the assignment file? Does this accurately represent the importance of this find? Had it been a valid fossil, what would it have taught us about *how* humans evolved from a common ape ancestor?
Okay on the enthusiasm of British scientists as one of the problems here, but why? Why was this such a big deal in England? What else was going on in the global scientific community at the time that might have caused British pride to get in the way of the scientific process? Also, what faults were involved in the creation of this hoax? Why motives were involved? Why did the culprits wish to commit this fraud to begin with?
Actually, the fluorine analysis revealed that the skull cap was not more than 50,000 years old (and maybe much younger) and the jaw was of a modern orangutan. How does the fluorine analysis work? Other than the new technology, what is it about the scientific process the helped insure that the hoax would eventually be uncovered? Why were scientists still analyzing this find some 40 years later?
Not just Einsteins and Newton's work, but all science is sourced in human creativity, curiosity and ingenuity. Could we even do science without these factors?
"When an individual is 100% certain then that individual believes there nothing else to know about that problem."
Very good point. I am always uncomfortable about people who have no doubt. Seems like they have shut of the part of them that allows for questions and curiosity and wonder about the world. When you think you have all the answers, life could appear to be rather boring, in my opinion.
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