Piltdown Man

     In 1912, a small town in Lewes, England called Piltdown was home to the discovery of a fossilized piece of an ancient human skull. The find was credited to an amateur archaeologist named Charles Dawson. The reason why this fossil was highly regarded was due to the fact that it could have been the missing evolutionary link between humans and apes. After the discovery, Dawson convened with Arthur Keith, Sir David Woodward, and Telihard De Chardin in order to present the fossil to the scientific community at large. Widespread groupthink occurred amongst the scientists throughout England and perhaps even the world. No one doubted the findings since Dawson's group then went on to find several other fossil pieces to supplement his initial discoveries. As well as the fact that fossil dating technologies were essentially non-existent during that time period. However, discoveries of ancient human fossils surfaced in Asia and in Africa. These fossils were much older and were inconsistent with the composition of Piltdown Man. This led to widespread skepticism of Piltdown's legitimacy and in 1949 a fluorine test was conducted and determined that the fossil was no more than 100,000 years old. Further thorough testing revealed that the fossils were: artificially stained, cuts were made throughout the fossils with a steel knife, and that the teeth belonged to a orangutan which later revealed that the fossil was less than 100 years old. The overwhelming amount of evidenced led to the conclusion that the Piltdown Man was nothing but a mere product of clever forgery. 

     The scientific process was clouded in this case due to national pride, hubris, and groupthink. Dawson was an ambitious man, he wanted nothing more than prestige within the scientific community. Apart from the Piltdown fossil, it was also discovered that many of his archealogical findings were also products of forgery. Scientists are humans too, which means that they are not immune to the forces of desire and greed. Another fact to consider is how the scientific community did not have any skeptics (perhaps Hinten was), and their decision to accept the fossil as true evolutionary evidence was due to the overwhelming amount of national pride and general jubilance everyone at the time incurred. England wanted to prove that they were also scientific pioneers and did not want to fall behind other European countries like France. 

     

     Where there is darkness, there is light. That light definitely shined when the skepticism of the Piltdown fossil grew. Advances in scientific technology like the fluorine dating test was developed and resulted in the exponential growth of said skepticism. Chemical tests and technologically advanced microscopes showed that a lot of what made the Piltdown fossil "authentic" were artificial. The utilization of the scientific method in order to answer the question "Is this truly a connection between humans and apes?" was used and further research and testing led to the conclusion that Piltdown man is simply a hoax.

     Scientists are the backbone of the entire subject of science. Without scientists, our understanding of science would not be as comprehensive as it is today. The fact that scientists are human means that is nearly impossible to remove the human factor out of science. However, as we advance technologically, so do our means of authenticating the discoveries made in the field of science. Countermeasures are in place in order to combat the human factor and the enforcement of the scientific method as well as peer-reviews are well implemented. Although it would be great to have an autonomous way to procure scientific data, I feel that the human factor is simply something that can not be removed.

     The life lesson here is, always be skeptical. Keep an open mind but do not be impressionable. It should take more than mere words and shoddy evidence to influence one's mind. Never succumb to hubris and groupthink, always think outside the box.