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Behind closed doors: What the Piltdown Man hoax from 1912 can teach science today

  • Written by Samuel Redman, Assistant Professor of History, University of Massachusetts Amherst
When new discoveries are jealously guarded under lock and key, science suffers.Andy Wright, CC BY

In 1912, Charles Dawson, an amateur archaeologist in England, claimed he’d made one of the most important fossil discoveries ever. Ultimately, however, his “Piltdown Man” proved to be a hoax. By cleverly pairing a human skull with an...

Read more: Behind closed doors: What the Piltdown Man hoax from 1912 can teach science today

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