Week 4: Piltdown Hoax

Piltdown hoax began in 1912 by an archaeologist Charles Dawson. It all started near the Southern English town of Louis in the valley of Piltdown. Charles was digging in a gravel pit and he claimed that he found ancient human skull. He then invited England’s leading geologist, Arthur Woodward to join him. Dawson dug up a jawbone which was very interesting. They said it didn’t look like a human’s jawbone but more like an ape’s. What was more interesting was the teeth were a lot like human’s teeth. This made them believe that there might be a missing link between apes and humans. During December 1912, Woodward finally announced their discovery. Scientist cheered and newspaper called it the “Piltdown Man”. People began doubting Woodward because he specialized in fish fossils not human evolution. Some people begin getting suspicious but they didn’t want to upset and challenge them so they just kept it to themselves. Decades later, the model of Piltdown man dominated research on human evolution. There was no way to tell if Piltdown man was a misstep path on human evolution. After World War II, scientist measured the fluorine content of fossils and scientist were able to date them. The result came out that the remains were young which was strange and made no sense at all. So in 1953, Scientist launched the full-scale analysis with better dating methods. After all the evidence it pointed to only one conclusion which meant somebody has forged the Piltdown fossils. Charles Dawson was the first suspect. More sleuthing must be done before scientists are able to solve the mystery of the Piltdown hoax. This really taught scientist a painful yet valuable lesson. At the beginning of the century, there was this idea that scientists were scholars and gentleman but it was so unexpected that someone was going to do something like this. Now scientists are more alert that possibilities like this can happen.

Humans make mistakes and so do scientists. There was probably varies of faults that many people saw in this case. One human fault that I thought was important and that came into play here is people weren’t outspoken. When Woodrow announced their discovery there was many people in doubts. Some were even suspicious but they just kept quiet.  No one had the guts to stand up to them. They didn’t want to say anything because they were scared that it could upset or challenge Dawson and Woodrow. In result, they just kept the suspicions to themselves. In my opinion, if someone spoke up and question anything they were suspicious about, maybe it wouldn’t have taken long to find out it was a fraud.

A positive aspect of the scientific process was the technologies, tests, and going back to double check. For instance, after World War II, scientist measured the fluorine content of fossils and scientists were able to date them. Once they discover that the fossils seem to be younger than they should be, they knew something wasn’t right. They went back and carefully analyzed and exam it over and over until they realized something. Once they realized that fossils were a fraud, it came to conclusion that there is no missing link.

In my opinion, it is possible to remove the “human” factor. But I wouldn’t want to remove “human” factor from science. The “human” factor makes mistakes but mistakes are the reason why scientist go back and check their work. While they’re checking their work there’s many possibilities that new discoveries can be found along the way.

The number one life lesson this probably taught many of us is not everything you hear or see is always going to be true. It’s better to find out the facts for yourself then just believing what others tell you.