Piltdown Hoax

The Piltdown Man was discovered in 1912 by Charles Dawson on a gravel road in Piltdown, England.  This had a big impact on the scientific community, especially in England because no fossils have ever been found there.  To the English it finally meant that they also had ancient human fossils like all the other great countries. It looked like they might have discovered the oldest human ancestors of that time. The Piltdown Hoax was not known until 1949 when two scientists were able to get a hold of the Piltdown Man bones. With new methods of determining the age of fossils were developed is when they discovered that the bones were actually more recent than they had previously been calculated. The bones were stained with bichromate in order to make them appear aged. The canine tooth was found to have been filed down and stained to show that it was human and aged. Some scientist would question the many bones that were missing or how the bones did not match to one another (the jaw to the skull).

                The human faults that come into this scenario is that no one wanted to question the findings. Many scientist were suspicious about the findings, but no one would come out and question them. Being ambitious, because some people will do anything to get what they want even if it is morally wrong. Also, the excitement of a new discovery, but with this it did not get a wide range of study.  Not having the right equipment or methods to accurately date a specific find.  It made scientist more aware and to question any findings and not let there emotions get in the way of the scientific process. It also led scientist to come up with better methods of dating their findings.

                The positive aspects of the scientific process came when scientist were able to do a thorough analysis of the Piltdown fossils.  A new technology was developed to age their findings.  It was called the fluoride test, which measured the fluoride content of the fossils, scientist could roughly date them.  Upon looking at the jawbone through a microscope, it was found that the teeth have been filed down flat to look human.  Also discovered was that the fossils were stained.

                It is not possible to remove the human factor from science. With new technologies developing everyday and this hoax to look back on will help reduce the chances of this error from happening again.  I would not want to remove the human factor from science.  We as humans are not perfect, but we are aware of frauds and will always be vulnerable to them.  We just have to do a little bit of more work to prove that what we have discovered is true.  That is what makes science.  As long as you go through the scientific method to see if it is falsifiable, their should not be any problem.

                The life lesson that any one can take from this historical event is to not believe everything you see or hear and do not be so quick to judge.  Do your own research after getting the information to see if what you saw or heard was actually true.  You can ask other people that are subject matter experts or go to a library and do some research from verified sources. Do not just look at one sources, but many to see if they do not conflict with each other.