1. During the an excavation in
1908 a skull and jaw were discovered in Sussex, England and is now considered
on of the most interesting and changing events in science. The discovery of Piltdown hoax was done by one of the mine
workers that appear to be a fossilized coconut so it was broken. After a few
years this was determined as real pieces of a skull, then the Geological
Society in London. At first the scientist became very interested in this but
continued to dismiss it as forgery due to the fact that it mixed human and ape
features which had not ever been discovered before. It was then after 40 years
that this was credited as a link between ape and human species. This was one of
the biggest discoveries to turn the focus of geological studies to the study of
human evolution.
2. Some of the flaws that often
impair scientist as well as drive for new discoveries is rationalizing and second
guessing original discoveries. Often especially with things that are hard to
believe we can turn them down as fake, with the Piltdown hoax
it definitely seemed to be that way especially after it had been crushed. If at
times scientist had come together and decided to re build and accredit this as
a link of evolution, perhaps an earlier understanding and higher desire to
study further into the relations between apes and Humans. This could have also
accelerated medical research along with deeper interest on how we became the
type of creature we are today.
3. Some of the issues regarding
the Piltdown Hoax was that it completely contradicted the directions fossils previously discovered. Along with that
certain scientist such as Charles Dawson who was considered the main forger is supported by the accumulation of
previous incidents. As the research continued more and more doubts about the
skull drew, it was only the fact that other scientist doubted each other that
ultimately caused the entire science society valuable time with the discovery
to determine more about it.
4. Removing the “human” factor
from science to reduce the chance of errors happening is nearly impossible, to
remove human factors would also mean to remove our rationality along with our instinct.
I would not remove the human factor from science because the only reason
science has expanded as far as it has, is because we as humans have an enormous
sense of knowing and conquering our surroundings. And in order to do so, we
need to know the most about ourselves as well as how we got where we are at
today.
5. Some of the things that can be
learned from this is that not everything source can be trusted (certain
websites, people regarding word of mouth) and that even after a source or
information that you have been told can always be researched to prove its credibility.
If there was one thing I personally take into consideration as well as hope
others would apply it, is that everything should be studied as though it was
real until proven fake.
I'm a little confused on the issue of the crushing and reconstruction. It was the finding of the cranium and then the subsequent finding of the jaw and canine tooth, and putting all of these together as being from a single organism, that led to the conclusions Dawson, et al, made.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious that you seem to suggest that second guessing is a flaw in the scientific process. It was the second guessing and the doubt that resulted in the fraud being uncovered. Without the doubt, we are more likely to accept incorrect arguments.
What was the dating technique that uncovered the fraud?
Good basic background. Just clarify for yourself some of your misconceptions on the history of the fraud.
Hi Marissela,
ReplyDeleteI must say I agree with you about not removing human factor from science. Although humans interfered in science negatively such is Piltdown Hoax, I can’t emphasize enough how important the role of human being is in researching and expanding the science as we witness today. So good job on that part.
When it came to the findings, the issue that originally also came from this Hoax was that the technique of flooring content of fossils had not been available at the time, which made the findings real. Second guessing the discovery was still not proper for the time, when it came to the the Piltdown Hoax i do believe that there is no way to really support the decisions, but if the scientist from the museum had let more research to be developed as suppose to hold one piece of "evidence" without further investigation from other groups or scientist, was wrong. I also see now that my biggest issue and where i misunderstood is that i still saw the Hoax as a real discovery just not properly dated to the 100 years old it was and considered it to be 100,000 years old
ReplyDeleteMarissela
ReplyDeleteI see that you clarified your information-the hoax in all of it is that the scientific community was fooled into believing it for 40 years, since they didn't publicly question it enough. It is interesting how much inaccurate or unclear info is available, especially with the rise of the Internet...which is why I disagree on your point that "everything should be studied as though it was real until proven fake". This seems to be the opposite of the scientific method in which we create a "falsifiable" hypothesis and try to disprove ourselves. One of the human errors here is that since Darwin had already prepared scientists for the idea, the framework for its possibility had already been laid out, and the "discovery" was canonized as the "missing link" and stuck in a museum without thorough testing. Doubt is a strength when testing such a claim. Great job on recognizing the initial misconception...I did the same thing with the dating method when I posted...
Kristin Ghilardi