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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
 Posted - 08/21/2001 : 11:26:42
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Debunker of Piltdown Man Dies at 77
.c The Associated Press
LONDON (AP) - E.T. Hall, the Oxford University professor who exposed the hoax of Piltdown Man and joined an international effort to date the Shroud of Turin, has died at age 77.
Hall, who directed the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art at Oxford for 34 years after its foundation in 1955, died on Aug. 11, his family said. The cause of death was not announced.
He was part of a team of scientists from Oxford, the University of Arizona and the University of Zurich which analyzed the Shroud of Turin in 1988, using carbon-14 dating techniques on two postage stamp-sized samples.
The cloth has been venerated because the image of a man on the cloth has been thought to be an imprint of the crucified Jesus. The scientists said they were ``95 percent certain'' that the shroud dated between 1260 and 1390.
``Some people may continue to fight for the authenticity of the shroud, like the Flat Earth Society, but this settles it all as far as we are concerned,'' Hall said, flatly declaring it to be a medieval forgery.
Piltdown man, apparently discovered in a gravel pit in southern England in 1912, was once thought to be a ``missing link'' in evolution. Its skull had human features, but the jaw appeared to be more related to apes.
Later archaeological discoveries raised suspicions about Piltdown man, and Hall provided the damning evidence. In 1953, he used X-ray fluorescence techniques to prove that the bones had been stained with potassium dichromate to make them look fossilized. Hall also discovered iron filings that indicated the teeth of an orangutan's jawbone had been filed to make them appear more human.
In a letter to the scientific journal Nature in 1994, Hall disclosed that the British Museum's custody of the Piltdown head nearly frustrated his tests, but the quick, nondestructive nature of his new X-ray flourescence analysis helped get around it.
``Indeed, these analyses were probably the very first practical use of XRF for either academic or commercial purposes,'' he said.
Hall is survived by his wife and two sons.
AP-NY-08-21-01 0531EDT
The Evil Skeptic
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2001 : 12:48:50 [Permalink]
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quote:
Debunker of Piltdown Man Dies at 77
And the average intelligence of the planet drops again.
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Piltdown
Skeptic Friend
USA
312 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2001 : 19:40:09 [Permalink]
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quote:
quote:
Debunker of Piltdown Man Dies at 77
And the average intelligence of the planet drops again.
Professor Hall was one of my heroes, and a shining example of what science really is. I started using this name quite a few years ago to illustrate that. We are going to miss him.
Abducting UFOs and conspiring against conspiracy theorists since 1980. |
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ljbrs
SFN Regular
USA
842 Posts |
Posted - 09/08/2001 : 19:55:43 [Permalink]
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quote:
Professor Hall was one of my heroes, and a shining example of what science really is. I started using this name quite a few years ago to illustrate that. We are going to miss him.
I remember when *Piltdown Man* was accepted by many people and how the pain of having to think everything over again made so many true believers sad. For me, it was actually exciting to see the debunking of this silliness taken so seriously.
Professor Hall made so many contributions to the debunking of fraud.
Piltdown: I knew where you got your screen name. I did not know the reason until now. Great thinking.
quote:
And the average intelligence of the planet drops again.
Professor Hall will be missed. His contributions to scientific sanity will live on.
ljbrs  
*Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error.* Goethe |
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Snake
SFN Addict
USA
2511 Posts |
Posted - 09/08/2001 : 20:31:24 [Permalink]
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quote:
Professor Hall will be missed. His contributions to scientific sanity will live on.
ljbrs
*Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error.* Goethe
Unless the Creationist take over. 
Rap Crap is to music what Paint by Numbers is to art. |
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