1) The Piltdown Hoax is called the most famous paleontological hoax ever. It took 40 years for it to be discovered as a hoax but was held to be very controversial until then. On December 18th, 1912 at a meeting of the Geological Society of London, Charles Dawson said he was given a fragment of a skull by a man who worked at a gravel pit in Piltdown, England. Dawson then revisited the site and found more skull fragments. Dawson took the pieces to Arthur Smith Woodward who also gained an interest in them and together the two men recovered more pieces of skull plus the lower jaw bone (mandible). Woodward put the pieces together and said that the skull resembled a modern human man but with a few differences. He suggested that the skull was the missing link between ape and man. in 1923, Franz Weidenreich examined the skull. He concluded that the main part of the skull was from a human and the mandible was from an ape or an orangutan with the teeth filed down. People didn't believe him but eventually it was proven that he was correct.
2) I think a lot of this had to do with technology at the time. If this situation happened today everything would have been DNA tested and cat scanned and all sorts of stuff. Back in that time, they had very few things they could do to verify anything. They had their scientific methods, of course. But nothing like we had today. I think the lack of technology got the better of them in this situation.
3) The scientists that examined the Piltdown subject concluded that the bones were stained with an iron and acid solution. After studying it closely with a microscope they discovered there were file marks on the teeth which they concluded someone intentionally did to give the impression of a shape more suited to the human diet. They also preformed a fluorine absorption test on the specimen, they tested as being fairly modern.
4) I think if this was completely computer analyzed in this day and age it would have been proven to be a fraud really quickly. But I definitely do not think that science should be 100% non human. That just becomes scary. I think we definitely need scientists and inventors - all those people with creative minds to step outside the box and see things from a different angle.
5) This just reenforces the need to check everything out for yourself. Make sure you get the facts, ask the important questions, double check your answers. Don't take everything at face value. Be aware of what you are taking in as a "fact"
Can the failure to uncover this fraud early on be blamed entirely on lack of technology? Could there have been any motivations on the part of scientists to accept the find as valid without confirmation? Social, political, academic...
ReplyDeleteI agree that science without humans would be scary. I don't even know if it is possible as it is human curiosity that drives science. Take out the human factor and where do the questions come from?
Overall, very good.
It was great reading your blog. You brought up an interesting point of how technology then was not as advanced as the technology we have now. I think that if the technology was like it is today, it would have been reassured early on that the fossil was a hoax before it hit public. At the end of your blog I can agree that it is always important to double check everything that is submitted or done. You stated not take everything at face value which is a smart concept. Not everything is always as it seems. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI think that the lack of technology during that time had so much to do with the fact that they could not figure out that it was all fake. I think that getting all of the facts are very crucial like you said to take everything at face value.
ReplyDelete