Charles Dawson discovered the hoax in the early 1900’s. He
found what he thought was some sort of human skull. It was found in 1912 in a
town called Piltdown. After WWII they
had discovered that the Piltdown hoax were younger than they had thought. They
figured the skull to be around 100 thousand years old then the jaw around the
100s.
Faults are always found and fingers are always pointed. In
this situation Charles Dawson wanted to feel successful for these findings and
went through with it with all the wrong reasons.
The scientific process for this fraud was fluoride testing
which was still not invented during the time of discovery. The fluoride shows
the age of the fossil by the fluorine it contains. They discovered the
difference in years and how much younger they really were.
Yes, it could be possible to remove human factor from
science, but is it a good idea, I don’t think so. Human mistakes are always
going to happen and it is what makes science, science. Which is why we test
things, make mistakes and better from them.
The life lesson that I take from this event is that we must
always look deeper into science and look further into ideas. Not everyone or
everything is what it seems and we should take the time to find the truth of
things instead of just lying and making things worse.
I agree with your final two sections on the human factor and the life lesson. Well done on this.
ReplyDeleteI was looking for a little more expansion on the other sections. There was a lot more information that could have been provided that helped explain why this hoax likely was perpetrated and to tell the story of it's falsification. For example, what was going on in the scientific world at this time? Had other fossils been found in other locations? What did this find tell us (had it been true) regarding human evolution? The fossil wasn't just younger than thought, it was also a combination of a human skull and an orang jaw. What was some other evidence that it was a hoax? Who was responsible for running the fluorine analysis?
Good description of test used to reveal the hoax. However,I don't think it was Dawson who initially found the skull fragment that started him digging at Piltdown.
ReplyDeleteIt was initially a workman who found the first fragment. Dawson took it from there.
DeleteA good little fact to put in there would have been how they figured the skull to be around 100 thousand years old then the jaw. Overall though it is a nice summary of the event.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your life lesson, i think it would be wise life lesson to look further into science and further into ideas, its true that not everything is as it seems. leo, the life lesson that can be taken from all this could be to be careful whom you trust. The entire scientific world was dooped by Charles Dawson because they put their trust into him without immediately "checking up" on the "facts" that he presented. Good job!
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