The
Piltdown Hoax
The fossils were found
by Charles Dawson an amateur archaeologist. Charles Dawson found a skull and jaw
in the village of Piltdown in England around 1912. Every time a scientist
discovers something new there is a lot of commotion, change, confusion and more
studying. I think we can always learn something from something new or
undiscovered but it needs facts and proof behind it to actually believe in new
findings or fossils in this case. The community was shocked and arose questions
but more in disbelief. At the time they probably wanted to know more like how
many years was that fossil there for? Who did it come from? Is it really from
an ape or just a human? Same questions we would ask today if we found fossils.
I think the year difference from today and 1912 we would look at it or approach
it differently.
Well just like anyone
when you get something new or discover something that no one hasn't. You kind of fill up with ideas or sometimes don’t even think before acting. The problem
in this scenario would be that Dawson rushed this whole thing about finding
fossils and actually not thinking about what it could do to future scientists
and how much confusion there would be. Then again we don’t know if he actually
was the one that thought of this fraud or really thought the bones fit together
and make one ancestor all together. The main thing is to stay calm and make
sure all the pieces fit together to have data to back up your findings.
They started realizing
that all this was odd around the 1950’s. They started looking at hominids and
genus homo traits and putting two and two together realizing that nothing added
up. Scientists in the 1950’s began doing testing on the fossils like fluorine tests
on the bones which estimated how old the bones were. By doing this they found
out that the bones were less than 50,000 years old. Then there was other anthropologist
who fully studied the anatomy of the bones and noticed that it came from two
different species. They also used a microscope to look at the teeth and noticed
that they were filed down to make them look more like human teeth.
In my opinion I think
the human factor plays an important role in everyone’s life whether you’re a scientist
or not. I think they could remove it from science but kind of impossible I mean
how would you stop a scientist from the way they behave or the choices they
make. I think what an amateur like Dawson was doing was that he wanted fame
just like everyone else. He wanted to be known as a great scientist. I think
there will always be errors because no one is perfect. So whether the human
factor is removed or not error will always come into play.
The life lesson is that
everyone will do anything for fame and fortune and sometimes we shouldn't think like that because everything can fall if you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.
It should be considered hard work and it will pay off otherwise consider
yourself a fool if they catch on to your mistakes.
Other than Dawson's name and the date, I don't see many facts in your synopsis of this event. Who else was involved? What bones were found? Why was this important to English scientists in particular and what would it have taught us about how humans evolved? How was the hoax uncovered and by whom? All of this information was available in the video and should have been included here.
ReplyDelete"The problem in this scenario would be that Dawson rushed this whole thing about finding fossils and actually not thinking about what it could do to future scientists and how much confusion there would be."
I'm not sure I understand how you came to this conclusion. All scientists, when they develop new ideas or make discoveries, introduce these ideas to the scientific community and the process of review and analysis is not filled with "confusion". The problem here was not that Dawson "rushed" this but that it was a hoax that was too readily accepted by the scientific community with too little skepticism. So why did was the scientific community so quick to accept this find as valid? And why did the culprits behind this hoax create it in the first place? What human faults were involved here?
Okay on your discussion on the positive aspects of science, though they didn't find the same date for all the bones in the Piltdown fossil. You touch on another issue here: Other than better technology, what about the scientific method itself helped to uncover the hoax? Why were scientists still investigating this find some 40 years after it was uncovered?
I agree that you can't take the human factor out of science, but the question asked if you would remove it if you could? You mention only the problems with the human factor. Do humans bring any positive traits to the process of science that you would not want to lose, such as curiosity, ingenuity and intuition? Could we even do science without these positive human factors?
Okay on your life lesson.
Hi Mrs Rodriguez! Thanks for commenting on my post. So i read my post again and i agree with you. I see that i missed out on a lot of key points in my synopsis and through out my post i added a lot of of my opinions when i should of stuck with the information that was handed to me. For the human factor question, I think if i could remove it i probably wouldn't because like you say on your comments there is positives sides to it. I mean curiosity is a big one without that we wouldnt want to continue or go further in our findings, or just wanting to do something for the scientific community and open new doors. But thanks for your criticism, ill keep these points for my next post!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the response. It is always appreciated.
DeleteOther than Dawson, geologist Woodward and Father Chardin were also helpers on the Piltdown findings! I feel like you assumed that Dawson rushed his findings however in my opinion if he wanted people to believe this fossil, he probably took his time and that clearly shoed with all the changes such as the filing of the teeth, the staining, and the way the jawbone was manipulated into fitting!
ReplyDelete