Assignment 5

1.      The most notable hoax in the scientific world, the Piltdown Man. Piltdown quarry was located in Sussex, England and was the site where Charles Dawson discovered fragments of bones. This ancestor of man was named Eoanthropus dawsoni, or the Piltdown man. Shortly after his discovery, Dawson enlisted the help of Arthur Woodward, England leading geologist of the Natural History Museum, and some others for his quest of more fossils. In 1912, Dawson stated to the scientific community that he had discovered bones of an ancient primate. Scientists were enthusiastic to hear this news because they finally had fossils of their own, like other great countries of their status. There was no real objection to the findings at first.

         However, fossils in Asia and Africa were found in the 1920’s. These fossils would prove the findings in Piltdown to be false. The fossils in Asia and Africa were found to have lived hundreds of thousands of years after and have a lesser human skull than that of the Piltdown man. Also, after closer investigations, scientists found that teeth were filed, the bones were stained, and the jaw was broken to not show the obvious signs of its true origin. Most of the blame fell of Dawson himself, the amateur geologist, because he was the only one to have found fossils at the sight. Dawson wanted to be apart of royal society and is probably the reason for his doings. Woodward was also a suspect, but was ruled out because he kept digging even after Dawson had died.

2.      Humans are able to lie, cheat, and deceive. Most of us would love to be awarded for our actions, famous, and rich. These ambitions humans possess can cause and push some of us to do things that we wouldn’t normally do. In Charles Dawson’s case, I believe this is what happened. He wanted to be famous and accepted in royalty and did what he thought was necessary. Also, scientists were looked up to in those days, trusted. Trust came into play in the Piltdown man hoax when everyone simply believed Dawson and took his word on what he said and found.

3.      After World War 2, a new method of dating fossils came to light. By measuring the fluorine content of fossils, scientists are able to roughly date them correctly. It was also found that the fossils had been artificially stained to give them a sense of datedness. Finally, looking at the teeth under a microscope revealed scratch marks, evidence that they had been grinded down by a file of somewhat to give it the desired shape. By doing this, it was discovered that the bone was only about a hundred years old and was from a female orangutan.

4.      I don’t think you can remove the ‘human’ factor from science. There is always going to be a chance for a human to take advantage of something, whether it’s from the finding of fossils to the reason why the sun shines.

         Without the human factor, there would be no science. Science depends on human minds. No other animal or machine could possibly produce what we have (yet). Without human thoughts, ideas, and dreams, could we have put a man on the moon? No. We need the human factor in science to make discoveries, figure out why things work the way they do, and consistently push the limits of science and life.

5.      We can all learn from Dawson’s deception. You should never trust anything by their face value. Scientists implemented the scientific method for this reason. A man at Starbucks tells you he owns AT&T. Another man tells you he traveled through time to stop global warming. Would you believe them? I wouldn’t. I would do research; prove that what they are telling me is true. Once I find proof on the owner of AT&T and time travel, I’d be more likely to believe them. Trust nothing until proven correctly.