Piltdown Hoax

1. Begin by giving a brief synopsis of the Piltdown hoax, including when and where it was found, by whom, its scientific significance (what would it have taught us) and varying effects this had on the scientific community. Also include how the hoax was discovered and the varying responses it received from the scientist(s) involved and in the related fields of human evolution. (10 pts) 
   

   1. The Piltdown Hoax was a forgery in fossils that took place in the early 1900's. In a town called Louis in Southern England a man named Charles Dawson started this whole scam many years after  a worker found a piece of a skull in the Piltdown gravel pit. For sometime after Dawson and a man named Arthur Woodward continued to dig up different bone fragments. They claimed the fossils appeared to be that of an early human being. This would lead researchers in the wrong direction for 40 years until the truth comes out.  The path to finding out the truth to human evolution would turn in to a dead end. Had this been the truth like everyone was fooled into believing it would provide an answer to our relation to apes. The finding of this would lead others to conclusions that would all turn out to be false. The hoax was discovered in 1970 when a trunk was found that contained fossils that were modified and looked similar to that of the Piltdown findings. It would soon be uncovered that many of Dawson's finings were in fact fake or forged.  Scientists at that time were already in doubt of the findings are thought that perhaps they were from different creatures. Another factor was that since the Death of Dawson there were never any more fossils found like his.

Scientists are curious, creative and persistent by nature, but being human, they also have faults. What human faults come into play here in this scenario and how did these faults negatively impact the scientific process? (5 pts) 

2. The human faults that come into play here are competition and the ability to be deceived. Competition is at fault because after Germany made a claim of humans originating in Germany the hoax was then started in England to draw peoples attention for years. The way this impacted the scientific process was by  revealing that science can't be real if there is possibilities for things to be fake. I think this impacted the field and encouraged them to test all findings to make sure there was no possible chance of something being wrong.

What positive aspects of the scientific process were responsible for revealing the skull to be a fraud? Be specific about scientific tools, processes or methodologies that were involved in providing accurate information about the Piltdown skull. (5 pts) 

3. What reveled this hoax was other findings through out the world. None of these findings would ever match that of Dawson's findings. A series of tests were done on the fossils during the mid 1900's, one of these tests was a fluorine test, which showed that the fossils were no more than 100 years old. After their testings they were able to conclude that the fossils indeed came from two different creatures, A human and of an orangutan. They were able to see that bones were staged different colors and teeth were gridded  down. 

Is it possible to remove the “human” factor from science to reduce the chance of errors like this happening again? Would you want to remove the human factor from science? (5 pts) 

4. I think to a certain extent it is possible to remove the Human factor from science. What i mean is if there is a certain series of steps that are required to test and validate things than it should be impossible to come up with incorrect answers. I believe the human factor has already been removed from science based of the way the scientific process works.

Life Lesson: What lesson can you take from this historical event regarding taking information at face value from unverified sources? (5 pts)  

5. What I learned from this was to never believe something just because someone said it was that way. In order for it to be the truth it needs to be tested and prove to be impossible to be wrong. I try and imply this in many aspects of my life.