Piltdown Man Hoax

Charles Dawson found Piltdown man in Piltdown, England back in the early 1900’s. Companied by Arthur Smith Woodward and Father Pier Thayer. The affects that it had on people were negative because it was a distraction to the scientist and fooled scientist for over 40 years. The findings made scientist believe that the jawbone and skull bone the Dawson found were of an ancient ancestor to that of the humans, an ape like human.  The responses at first was surprising because it was a new find, but as years went on and technology got better, the responses turned into shock because the “fossils” the Dawson found showed to be under 100 years old, making it seem as though Dawson fakes his findings for the attention.

The faults that were seen in this experience were that Dawson may have been apart of and the leader of a false fossil discovery.  It negative impacts the scientific process by stalling the current findings that are around them.  Faking the findings caused scientist to now believe that Dawson was just doing this for attention and the publicity on his geological findings.  This also puts his other partners in the same shoes, though not as bad as his own, it has a negative forces on them as well because being apart of the findings, people now think that they helped Dawson fake his findings.

With newer technology to measure the fluorine content in fossils, scientist were able to find out just how old the “fossils” that Dawson found were. Also, to find out more, the microscope revealed that the teeth were possibly filed down, the skull (maybe as a fossil) were cut by a steel knife, and the “fossils” were stained to look as old as it appeared.  When scientist concluded that the skull actually belonged to a female orangutan.

If by “human” factor, meaning leaving everything to machines and chemicals, I think it is possible to remove, but how would that help the findings? The human factor is, in my opinion, the safety net of any operation.  It provides the, “What if…?” or “what about…?” to everything around us.  The human factor is the alarm system, without it we wouldn’t have theories, let alone questions about anything.  It is meant to make us as human beings more alert and aware that something, like the hoax, could happen and it’s our job to not let it happen by checking our records and proofing everything to the dot.

The life lesson is to not always believe what you hear, or in this case, see as well.  Also, to always verify a source if it doesn’t seem true.  Just because something looks real or sounds believable, you shouldn’t always trust it because it could be false. The person you hear something from could have heard something wrong making it a lie to you when you think it’s what was really said. The “telephone game” is how rumors are spread, not matter how little something is.  Also, as well as lies, seeing something might not always be true because someone could have made something look believable like we saw with the hoax.