The Piltdown Forgery

The Piltdown Forgery PDF Author: J. S. Weiner
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191505072
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
On 21 November 1953, one of the most fascinating puzzles in science was finally solved. Three scientists--Joseph Weiner, Kenneth Oakley, and Wilfrid Le Gros Clark--described their investigations into the important fossilized human remains found at Piltdown in Sussex in the early 1900s. Their conclusion was stunning: the remains, and the accompanying materials that supposedly verified them as ancient fossils, had all been faked. The discovery of Piltdown Man had been announced to the world in 1912 by an amateur fossil hunter, Charles Dawson, and the Keeper of Geology at the Natural History Museum in London, Arthur Smith Woodward, who had found fragments of a thickset skull and an ape-like lower jaw, along with other bones and stone tools. These fragments pointed to a species of early human who had lived in England a million years ago-a 'missing link' between apes and modern man. But, as Weiner and his colleagues were to reveal in 1953, the skull was a recent one, and the jaw had belonged to an orang-utan. These and many other 'finds' from Piltdown had been deliberately stained and tampered with to make them appear ancient, and the scientific establishment had been well and truly fooled. Widely praised from its first publication in 1955, The Piltdown Forgery remains the classic account of this story and its many players. In this fiftieth anniversary edition, Professor Chris Stringer, Head of Human Origins at the Natural History Museum in London, provides an introduction to this famous story, and an afterword containing the latest detective-work. Ever-increasing technological powers may one day reveal who did what, and why, but until then this remains an engrossing tale of mixed motives, captivating trickery, and competing egos: a tale fit to rival the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (himself a player in this saga) at his best.

The Piltdown Forgery

The Piltdown Forgery PDF Author: J. S. Weiner
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191505072
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Get Book Here

Book Description
On 21 November 1953, one of the most fascinating puzzles in science was finally solved. Three scientists--Joseph Weiner, Kenneth Oakley, and Wilfrid Le Gros Clark--described their investigations into the important fossilized human remains found at Piltdown in Sussex in the early 1900s. Their conclusion was stunning: the remains, and the accompanying materials that supposedly verified them as ancient fossils, had all been faked. The discovery of Piltdown Man had been announced to the world in 1912 by an amateur fossil hunter, Charles Dawson, and the Keeper of Geology at the Natural History Museum in London, Arthur Smith Woodward, who had found fragments of a thickset skull and an ape-like lower jaw, along with other bones and stone tools. These fragments pointed to a species of early human who had lived in England a million years ago-a 'missing link' between apes and modern man. But, as Weiner and his colleagues were to reveal in 1953, the skull was a recent one, and the jaw had belonged to an orang-utan. These and many other 'finds' from Piltdown had been deliberately stained and tampered with to make them appear ancient, and the scientific establishment had been well and truly fooled. Widely praised from its first publication in 1955, The Piltdown Forgery remains the classic account of this story and its many players. In this fiftieth anniversary edition, Professor Chris Stringer, Head of Human Origins at the Natural History Museum in London, provides an introduction to this famous story, and an afterword containing the latest detective-work. Ever-increasing technological powers may one day reveal who did what, and why, but until then this remains an engrossing tale of mixed motives, captivating trickery, and competing egos: a tale fit to rival the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (himself a player in this saga) at his best.

Unraveling Piltdown

Unraveling Piltdown PDF Author: John Evangelist Walsh
Publisher: Random House (NY)
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
In 1913 amateur fossil hunter and archaeologist Charles Dawson found in a gravel pit the cranium and jaw of an entirely new species of humanoid, which became known as Piltdown man, which caused headlines worldwide as the missing link between man and ape. In 1952, it was exposed as a hoax. With eight pages of photos, this book is a wonderful detective story, and the first examination the convincingly fingers the perpetrator.

Hoax

Hoax PDF Author: Edward Steers
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813141605
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
A “lively yet thoroughly researched” look at persistent myths and stubborn scams, and how historians try to combat them (The Courier-Journal). Did a collector with a knack for making sensational discoveries really find the first document ever printed in America? Did Hitler actually pen a revealing set of diaries? Has Jesus’ burial cloth survived the ages? Can the shocking true account of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination be found in lost pages from his murderer’s diary? Napoleon famously observed that “history is a set of lies agreed upon,” and Edward Steers Jr. investigates six of the most amazing frauds ever to gain wide acceptance in this engrossing book. Hoax examines the legitimacy of the Shroud of Turin, perhaps the most hotly debated relic in all of Christianity, and the fossils purported to confirm humanity’s “missing link,” the Piltdown Man. Steers also discusses two remarkable forgeries, the Hitler diaries and the “Oath of a Freeman,” and famous conspiracy theories alleging that Franklin D. Roosevelt had prior knowledge of the planned attack on Pearl Harbor and that the details of Lincoln’s assassination are recorded in missing pages from John Wilkes Booth’s journal. The controversies that Steers presents show that there are two major factors involved in the success of a hoax or forgery—greed and the desire to believe. Though all of the counterfeits and conspiracies featured in Hoax have been scientifically debunked, some remain fixed in many people’s minds as truth. As Steers points out, the success of these frauds highlights a disturbing fact: If true history fails to entertain the public, it is likely to be ignored or forgotten.

Hoax Springs Eternal

Hoax Springs Eternal PDF Author: Peter Hancock
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107071682
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
This book examines and extrapolates from famous historical case studies to illustrate principles of cognitive deception and how to avoid being deceived.

The Giant and How He Humbugged America

The Giant and How He Humbugged America PDF Author: Jim Murphy
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 0545537754
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
When a 10-foot tall purported "petrified man" is unearthed from a backyard in upstate New York in 1869, the discovery immediately turns into a spectacle of epic proportions. News of the giant spreads like wildfire, and well over a thousand people come to view him in the first five days alone!Everyone has their own idea of his true origin: Is he an ancient member of the local Onandaga Indian tribe? Is he a biblical giant like Goliath? Soon the interests of world-renowned scientists and people from around the globe are piqued as arguments flare over who he is, where he came from, and if he is real--or just a hoax. In a riveting account of how the Cardiff Giant mystery snowballed into one of America’s biggest money-making spectacles--and scams--Jim Murphy masterfully explores the power of 19th-century media and the unexpected ripple effect that a single corrupt mastermind can produce when given a stage.

Creation Rediscovered

Creation Rediscovered PDF Author: Gerard J. Keane
Publisher: TAN Books
ISBN: 1505102367
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 531

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Book Description
The author covers the basic question, the two basic Evolution theories, the concept of "Special Creation," the discoveries of science, the fossil record, genetics, entropy, the age of the universe, pointers to a Creator, and a number of other questions. Not enough can be said for the importance of this book to get the fundamentals right regarding our Origins, in order that the rest of our thought and all our actions are based upon the truth.

The Return of Nature

The Return of Nature PDF Author: John Bellamy Foster
Publisher: Monthly Review Press
ISBN: 1583679286
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 688

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Book Description
Winner, 2020 Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize A fascinating reinterpretation of the radical and socialist origins of ecology Twenty years ago, John Bellamy Foster’s Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature introduced a new understanding of Karl Marx’s revolutionary ecological materialism. More than simply a study of Marx, it commenced an intellectual and social history, encompassing thinkers from Epicurus to Darwin, who developed materialist and ecological ideas. Now, with The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology, Foster continues this narrative. In so doing, he uncovers a long history of the efforts to unite questions of social justice and environmental sustainability, and helps us comprehend and counter today’s unprecedented planetary emergencies. The Return of Nature begins with the deaths of Darwin (1882) and Marx (1883) and moves on until the rise of the ecological age in the 1960s and 1970s. Foster explores how socialist analysts and materialist scientists of various stamps, first in Britain, then the United States, from William Morris and Frederick Engels, to Joseph Needham, Rachel Carson, and Stephen J. Gould, sought to develop a dialectical naturalism, rooted in a critique of capitalism. In the process, he delivers a far-reaching and fascinating reinterpretation of the radical and socialist origins of ecology. Ultimately, what this book asks for is nothing short of revolution: a long, ecological revolution, aimed at making peace with the planet while meeting collective human needs.

Teilhard's Mass

Teilhard's Mass PDF Author: Thomas Mulvihill King
Publisher: Paulist Press
ISBN: 9780809143283
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Essays by Teilhard de Chardin on the text of "the Mass of the World" from his work The Divine Milieu.

Inauthentic Archaeologies

Inauthentic Archaeologies PDF Author: Troy R Lovata
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315426927
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
In this concise, student-friendly look at the public appropriation of archaeology, Troy Lovata examines outright hoaxes, fanciful re-creations, artistic representations, commercial enterprises, and discredited replicas of the past.

When Good Thinking Goes Bad

When Good Thinking Goes Bad PDF Author: Todd C. Riniolo
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615921796
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
Todd Riniolo has written the perfect primer on critical thinking, not just for critical thinkers but for everyone. Not only should this book be the primary text of critical thinking courses throughout the land, but the chapters on how to think critically about political, economic, and social issues should be required reading for all members of Congress, along with the White House staff and the President himself. Riniolo has cracked open our skulls and revealed that what lies inside is a mass of irrational goo that must be reshaped through vigilance and education. This book is where it begins.-MICHAEL SHERMER, Publisher of Skeptic magazine; Monthly columnist for Scientific American; Author of Why People Believe Weird Things and Why Darwin MattersIn 1975, the Environmental Fund sponsored a full-page advertisement in leading newspapers, which predicted that the world as we know it will likely be ruined before the year 2,000, due to the assumed inability of world food production to keep pace with the increase in population. The statement was endorsed by some of the finest thinkers of the time-scientists, scholars, and other professionals who had spent their careers applying the principles of critical thinking to their chosen disciplines. Nonetheless, in this instance, they all failed to use the same rigor in assessing the probability of looming disaster and badly miscalculated.This is just one example of how even the best thinkers can sometimes go astray, and it illustrates how easily unconscious biases can undermine the critical thinking process. In this insightful analysis of the mental pitfalls that trip up even elite critical thinkers, psychologist Todd C. Riniolo makes a compelling case that under certain circumstances everyone is vulnerable to accepting erroneous beliefs.Riniolo begins by reviewing the hallmarks of critical thinking related to the evaluation of claims, such as the use of the double-blind procedure and the law of parsimony. He then provides an evolutionary framework and empirical supporting evidence from cognitive psychology to explain why being inconsistent in the use of critical thinking is part of our evolutionary heritage. Each of us possesses cognitive biases that make us prone to maintaining our current beliefs (both true and false). He concludes by focusing on a wide range of claims-environmental, political, economic, multicultural-to illustrate how in certain contexts we all are tempted to abandon critical thinking.Thoroughly researched yet written in a lively, witty style, this unique approach to critical thinking will interest students, teachers, and anyone who wishes to become a better thinker.Todd C. Riniolo (Grand Island, NY) is an associate professor of psychology at Medaille College. He has written many peer-reviewed articles in the psychological literature.