Piltdown Hoax

• In 1912 in a village called Piltdown in England 3 scientists made an "amazing" discovery. Charles Dawson, Arthur Smith Woodland, and Father Pierre found what they claimed to be the skull of an ancient human ancestor from millions of years ago. The fossils were found in a gravel pit in the town of Piltdown. For decades the find had scientists fooled to believe that was an early human ancestor. Until in 1949 when scientists were able to do a fluorine test on the skull and were puzzled when it turned out to look like it was only a few hundred thousand years old. Then in 1953 scientists took a better look at the skull with better dating methods and discovered many shocking things. First, that the skull was dyed a darker color to make it appear aged over millions of years. Second, the bones had been cut with a steel knife after they had already been fossilized in several areas so that you cannot get a complete picture of the skull and must fill in the blanks yourself. Third, the teeth on the jawbone were filed down to make them flat like a humans teeth would look. Lastly, the test proved that the skull was only about a hundred years old and was from the bones of a female chimpanzee. Father Pierre was very quiet when this was discovered, and others in the scientific community felt their credibility hurt and wanted to move past this hoax and continue with good honest science. It is not certain who was behind the hoax, but Charles Dawson is a very good suspect because he made the first discovery and the last one.

• This scenario is a great example of several human faults. Greed could have played a motivational role in this crime, the person(s) behind it wanted fame, attention, and recognition even if it was based on a lie. Then there was jealousy, some other countries had already found ancient human fossils, but England had not. In some peoples eyes this made England inferior in some ways to these other countries this is a possible motive for the hoax. Another is deceit to gain credibility, the findings of the skull showed that ancient humans developed a large skull before they could walk (which is not true) matched the theory of a scientist at the time. It is possible that he set up the findings so that his theory would be accepted as truth. Lastly is spite, one of the people working for Dawson did not like him and could have planted the fossils to ruin his reputation.

• The positive aspects of the scientific process are the advanced dating technology that aloud for the hoax to be discovered. Scientists first used a fluorine test that raised questions about the Piltdown Skull. A few years later in 1953 radiocarbon dating was used to show that the skull was barely 100 years old.  

• It is not possible to remove the "human" factor from science. A big part of science involves new ideas and theories being proven or disproven that help us to better understand the world around us. No machine can form its own ideas or think as critically as a human can so at this time it is not possible to remove the human factor from science. Even if we could I would not want to remove humans from science. machines can never compare to the ambition, intelligence, and hard work of scientists and they should never be replaced. However, humans work should be checked and tested so that it can be proven by everyone, to protect ourselves from another Piltdown hoax.

• Always be skeptical, I would never take something at face value from an unverified source. Even well known sources can use their credibility to lie and manipulate people because they bank on nobody checking the facts because they are a credible source. Do your own thinking, don't let others think for you. If you figure things out by your own research and test the research of others you will not be so easy to fool.