The Piltdown man was an archaeological site located in England where mammal fossils were found together, like the humans and apes. In 1912, an ape’s jaw was discovered and it was unlike nobody has very seen before, it was worn-down canine tooth, kind of like if it were a humans.The Piltdown man hoax was discovered in the 1950's but, in 1949, new technology emerged that helped date fossils more accurately and clues leading to the discovery of the Piltdown hoax. In 1949, scientist began to measure the fluorine content of fossils scientists could get a better date on the fossils. Then in 1953, a full series of scientific tests were conducted on the Piltdown fossils, which lead to the exposure of the hoax.The testing showed that staining on the bones was superficial, that some of the engraves in the bones were craved with a steel knife after it was fossilized, and the more noticeable find was the teeth using a microscope they discovered that they teeth were filed down to make them look similar to the ware of human teeth. The jaw bone was found dated less than 100 years old that came from a female orangutan. This discovery had the science community in shock, they couldn't believe that someone would made a fake fossil like this one.
Many scientists are curious, creative and persistent by nature, during a scientist discovery, they might find themselves where they are doubting their ideas and thoughts, and many don't let anyone know about they.Many scientist were probably doubting the jaw and skull were not from the same creature and were in doubt of being wrong for not having the proper material to back it up. The human fault could of been that many were afraid of putting their thoughts out there and being wrong.
The scientific tools that were involved in providing information in Piltdown skull was the new emerging scientific technology fluorine testing, which made many discoveries. The fluorine test helped them test the natural level of the fossils which allowed them to calculate the date of the fossils.
The human factors in science will always be there, even if the science community tries to get rid of them, they will always be there. It is human nature to have errors, ideas, curiosity, or any of other factors that may lead to a big mistake. Many of the theory's were found in the ideas of scientist that had a risk of being wrong. The human factors have made mistakes but also made discoveries, and without these factors research could not mean much if scientist wouldn't know what their looking for without a hypothesis.
The lesson I would take from the historical event would be that if I have a thought, option, or doubt of anything I will be open minded and let others know about even if it maybe wrong. In any ideas, I will always write down any doubts on it, and research about to back up my option.
Hi Jose,
ReplyDeleteReally great post, I liked the quick and informative first paragraph. It made it so much easier to read and got down to the point right away. I don't really think I quite understand your argument of "human factors" being responsible for failures and discoveries. Maybe you can clarify.
I agree with you on always being able to speak out. Specially now a days when we live in such a strong Social Media time. All it takes is for one person to tweet, hashtag or post and the masses will follow.
Other than that I really like the post, very easy to read.
Who was involved in finding the fossil in the first place? What was the significance of this find? If it had been valid, what would it have taught us about how humans evolved?
ReplyDeletePart of being a scientist is not being afraid of expressing your opinions. If you don't do it, you don't get very far. So I doubt hoax can be traced to this problem. But scientists might have had selfish reasons to look the other way, particularly since this was the first such find in England. Who wants to be the first British scientist to speak up and take that claim to fame away from his country? In addition to the question of why this find was accepted by the scientific community, what faults were involved in the perpetration of this hoax in the first place? Regardless of who produced this hoax, why did they do it?
Okay on your description of the fluorine analysis. Aside from new technology, what aspects of the scientific process itself helped to uncover the hoax? Why were scientists still analyzing this fossil 40 years after it was discovered?
You are on the right track on the issue of human factors. Are these human traits always negative? What about curiosity, ingenuity and innovation?
Good conclusion.
I really like how you talk about the way scientist are about their work and discoveries. They put all their time and life into their work and be in a position like this is at time unbarring. However that is why they have established the scientific method. In order to eliminate the human factor completely.
ReplyDeleteModern tools and dating technology has made it more accurate for scientist to publish their findings, and I do agree that this is why the hoax was found. Even if the scientist where wrong they have a responsibility to their community and work to be true and honest.
Like the post.
I can understand how people were afraid to challenge the hoax because they did not want to lose credibility; especially because it was coming from a respectable source. However, what human faults drove the actual creation of the hoax? I agree with your argument on the human factors. Without human error, we would not be able to learn from our mistakes and produce new scientific technologies and methods from these mistakes. Good post
ReplyDeleteHi Jose,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this post. When you are describing the hoax most of the details are there, yet you did not mention the skull pieces that were also found. I made this same mistake. I felt that the emphasis was mainly on the jawbone that was found, yet the connections are made as a whole with all the fossils that were found in Piltdown. In terms of human fault i absolutely agree with you and the same for human factors. We make errors and these errors show in either the theory's made or the support we find. This post is well written.