Piltdown Blog

1. Begin by giving a brief synopsis of the Piltdown hoax, including when and where it was found, by whom, and varying affects this had on the scientific community. Also include how the hoax was discovered and the varying responses it received from the scientist(s) involved and in the related fields of human evolution. (5 pts)

The Piltdown man was a “great” scientific discovery during 1912. It was said that Charles Dawson made a great scientific discovery about human evolution.  Found in Southern English town, Louis in a little village of Piltdown, the Piltdown man was discovered. The Piltdown man was supposed to be the missing puzzle between ape and human. Charles Dawson and his companions, Author Smith Woodward and Father Pier Tarhard Disharden took the credit for the findings the fossils of the Piltdown man. About 40 years later, as science advanced other scientists were able to do a fluorine test on the Piltdown fossils and discover that the Piltdown man was merely a hoax. The hoax was discovered by running test on the fossil only to discover that the fossil was only 100,000 years old while the Piltdown man was said to be million years old. As scientists were able to run the fossils under a microscope, they found that the fossils were stained and the tooth of the Piltdown man was a orangutan with its teeth filed down. This hoax significantly impacted the scientific community. Before scientists were looked up to as a gentleman and was looked upon. Due to the hoax, they were later looked with less respect as before.

2. Scientists are curious, creative and persistent by nature, but being human, they also have faults. What human faults come into play here in this scenario and how did these faults negatively impact the scientific process? (5 pts)

Scientists only being human come with faults and in the scenario with Charles Dawson, he desperate to get into loyalty so he decided to use his knowledge wrongfully. He used his ability to deceive many people, one being the Piltdown man hoax. At the same time my people discovered that the Charles Dawson had many fraudulent science discoveries.

        

3. What positive aspects of the scientific process were responsible for revealing the skull to be a fraud? Be specific about scientific tools, processes or methodologies that were involved in providing accurate information about the Piltdown skull. (5 pts)

The aspects to revealing the skull to be a fraud was the advance back then, scientific tests. With better dating methods, scientists were able to discover that the fossils were purposely stained and dated about 100,000 years ago which was too young for a Piltdown man. Scientists also discovered that the jaw of the Piltdown man was a jaw of a 100,000-year-old orangutan. The broken pieces of the jaw were intentionally broken in a way that no one can distinguish that the jaw was of a orangutan. At the same time the teeth of the jaw was filed down so that it had similarities of a human.

4. Is it possible to remove the “human” factor from science to reduce the chance of errors like this happening again? Would you want to remove the human factor from science? (10 pts)

I don't believe that it is possible to remove the “human” factor from science. Reason being is that we were made like this and there is no way that anyone can run away from that factor. We were born to make mistakes and when you add science to the problem there is no possible way to prevent a situation like this to happen again.

5. Life Lesson: What lesson can you take from this historical event regarding taking information at face value from unverified sources? (5 pts)

The lesson is simple, looks can be very deceiving so always look at the facts and make sure there is proof. If someone comes up with a theory you always have to make sure that the person has facts to support his theory.