The Piltdown Hoax

In the early 1900's, about fifty years after Darwin's theory of evolution had been published where he connected all living organisms to a common ancestor, laborers in South East England in the hills of Sussex in the village of Piltdown found what some thought to be the missing link to Darwin's theory. France, Spain, and Germany had all found their share of strange bones and made progress in support of evolution with advances such as the Neanderthals. However, scientists at this point had not found fossils to prove the link between humans and apes. With England not yet having any headway into the discovery of any fossils besides stone age tools, the discovery at Piltdown was thought to be their big break. The laborers who found the skull passed it to amateur archeologist, Charles Dawson who then met with Sir Arthur Woodward a geologist, Telihard, and Arthur Keith an anatomist. In 1912 Dawson wrote of the discoveries and linked the findings to have be ape and human with the evidence of the ape-like jawbone with human-like teeth. Sadly, it was discovered in 1949 that the remains were less than 100, 000 years old by measuring the fluorine content of the fossils. Furthermore, in conducting a full scale analysis in 1953 using chemical testing and microscopes, they realized that the staining was artificial and that the teeth had been filed. The final conclusion was that the fossils were less than 100 years old and actually belonged to a female orangutan. In attempting to find the culprit of such a scandal the most reliable suspect was Charles Dawson who desired to be a fellow of the Royal Society and gain scientific prestige. He later was found to have forged about a half of a dozen other records. In addition, the anatomist Arthur Keith was thought to have a strong motive to forge the information of the skull due to using the Piltdown man as evidence for his pet theory of Human Evolution. Unfortunately, this supposed missing link to support the connection of apes and humans was proven to be a complete forgery.

In the scenario of the Piltdown man forgery, the concept of human faults played a major role that has negatively impacted the scientific process. The national pride of Britain drove them to attempt to show that man had its origins with Britain and the self-interest of Charles Dawson to gain scientific prestige actually brought their downfall. Moreover, scientists that were previously looked at as scholarly gentlemen were now looked at as being subject to lies, cheats, and deception. The idea of Good Science came into play where it was based on objectivity yet knowing the capability of all those participating.

Although, the revealing of the skull to be a fraud was shameful to the scientific community there were positive aspects to the actual discovery of it being a fraud. To search out the further dating of the skull shows the reliability of using the scientific method to come to terms with the evidence that was presented. The scientists involved used the principles of the scientific method to observe, question, and hypothesize as to why the bones were not dating as far back as they should if they were in fact part ape part human. They also used methods of measuring fluorine content, chemical testing to discover artificial staining, and microscopes to provide accurate information regarding the truth of the Piltdown skull. Even though this discovery would have greatly supported the theory of evolution the scientists were devoted to the objective truth regarding the skull, regardless if it depicted others to be forgers.

The "human" factor that was involved in the Piltdown Hoax cannot be removed from science altogether because those conducting the research or experiments are all human. However, science can set through a system of checks and balances to continue to promote "Good" science based on objectivity. It doesn't mean that the things of this nature cannot happen again because people can conjure up many new ways to get what they want.

Overall, the main lesson from this historical event would not be that science can fooled or not trusted because as we have seen it is scientists themselves that brought to light the truth of Piltdown skull being a hoax. The real lesson would be that just because something is researched or found in the name of "science" the very object or theory must be examined with all biases put aside.