ScienceHealth

Many Children With Autism and Their Siblings Aren’t Getting Vaccinated

Decades of research has shown that vaccines do not cause autism spectrum disorder (ASD). But the fear of that connection continues to linger. And a new study published today in JAMA Pediatrics suggests that it’s scaring families affected by autism into not getting their children vaccinated. Scientists from the research arm of Kaiser Permanente, America’s … Continued

ScienceBiology

23andMe Data Shows That Kind People Might Have Empathy in Their Genes

Scientists have long been interested in understanding the underpinnings of empathy. Being able to share the feelings of another person plays a critical role in our inner lives, how we behave towards others, and the way human societies function as a whole. Harnessing the power of empathy, some suggest, could go a long way toward … Continued

ScienceHealth

Researchers Say They’ve Created a 90% Accurate Blood Test for Autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complicated neurological condition caused by a variety of risk factors, including our genes and environment (but no, not vaccines), that interact in ways we still understand little about. Its symptoms are varied, too—from problems with social interaction to being unable to speak or process sensations normally. This complexity extends … Continued

io9Trailers

Please Stand By Is About a Star Trek Fan Going to Great Lengths to Share Her Story

The first trailer is out for Please Stand By. Written by Michael Golamco (based on his one-act play from 2008), it stars Dakota Fanning as Wendy, an autistic woman who runs away from her group home so she can turn in a Star Trek script to a national competition. Her story sends Spock to Deep … Continued

Tech News

Scientists Are Now Using AI to Predict Autism in Infants

Despite all the headway that science has made in understanding autism in recent years, knowing which children will one day develop autism is still almost impossible to predict. Children diagnosed with autism appear to behave normally until around two, and until then there is often no indication that anything is wrong. But by scanning the … Continued

io9Books & Comics

New Comic Superb Will Introduce a Hero With Down Syndrome

While there have been a handful of comic book characters like Marvel’s M-Twins and Chip Reece’s Metaphase who are people with super abilities and people living with cognitive disabilities, there’s yet to be a hero with Down syndrome leading his or her own comic. In Lion Forge’s upcoming Superb, that’s going to change. As a … Continued

io9Books & Comics

The Incredible Challenge of Writing a Post-Apocalyptic Novel With an Autistic Hero

Post-apocalyptic stories usually feature a certain type of character—someone who fits in with survivalist tropes. We never want to think about how people with various disabilities will do after the end of civilization. But in the new book On the Edge of Gone, Corinne Duyvis chose to put an autistic character in the middle of … Continued

Tech News

Ethicists Voice Concerns Over Creation of Humanized ‘Autistic’ Monkeys

Researchers in China have genetically engineered monkeys to exhibit autistic-like behaviors, including impaired social skills and increased anxiety. This research is poised to improve our understanding of brain disorders, but ethicists say the harm endured by these monkeys is simply not worth it. Monkeys are increasingly being used as models for human diseases, and for … Continued

Tech News

Are Sperm Banks in the Business of Eugenics?

The most prominent sperm bank in the UK is under investigation after turning away donors with dyslexia and other questionable characteristics. This raises an important question: Should sperm banks be in the business of making “better” babies? Britain’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates sperm banks, has launched a review of the London … Continued

ScienceHealth

Why Expectant Mothers Shouldn’t Panic About Taking Antidepressants

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has found that women who take antidepressants during the mid-to-late stages of their pregnancy experience an 87% increased risk of having a child diagnosed with autism. Here’s what the study actually found and why there’s no immediate cause for alarm. Pregnant women who … Continued

io9

Is the Changing Definition of Autism Narrowing What We Think of as “Normal”?

The definition of autism is getting increasingly broader. As a result, we are building a new reality of the disorder that doesn’t accurately represent the most affected population. I first learned about autism in 1997 in my high school psychology course. It was relegated to a small paragraph in a chapter on childhood disorders. The … Continued

Tech News

NeuroTribes Is the Best Book You Can Read to Understand Autism

An epidemic. A vaccine-induced scourge. A curse. Or: The reason Steve Jobs was so focused. The thing Bill Gates had that helped him get rich. Autism is a misunderstood condition. Steve Silberman makes it understood in his new book NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity. I’m a fan of Silberman’s work … Continued

ScienceHealth

The Autism Epidemic: Increasing Cases or Just Increasing Diagnoses?

An interesting new study was recently published in the British Medical Journal about the ‘autism epidemic’ we have been experiencing in recent years (1). The Swedish authors of the study used data from children born between 1993 and 2002 to compare time trends in the rates of the autism symptom phenotype (i.e. the symptoms upon … Continued

io9

Vaccine Advocates: Please Don’t Discriminate Against My Autistic Son

Public opinion has turned, sharply and loudly, in favor of supporting vaccines. Yay! It took an outbreak of measles at Disneyland for it to happen. Boo! (Your grandmother might have survived her measles, but for others it can be fatal.) Top image: Joe Raedle/Getty Images But even though formerly wishy washy types are now joining … Continued

Tech News

Google Is Hunting for an Autism Gene

Google is on a mission to pinpoint the genetic causes of autism. The company is using its cloud-based genome database, Google Genomics, to sequence genomes from 10,000 people on the autism spectrum, along with their family members. The plan is to host and index the genomes so that researchers can look for the genetic origins … Continued

io9

​This Medical Condition Turns Your Life Into An Out-of-Sync Video

Ever had trouble getting the audio synced up with the video on your computer? Get the right kink in your brain, and you could live your whole life that way. One man began a new phase in his life when he looked at his daughter’s television and noticed that the audio and the video were … Continued

Tech News

The Heartwarming Story of An 11-Year-Old’s New Technological Friend

For most of us, Siri or Google Now (or Cortana, if you swing that way) is a minor help at best, a first-world solution to the first-world problem of not being able to text and drive. But as Judith Newman illustrates today in a heartfelt and heartwarming piece in the New York Times, Apple’s digital … Continued

io9

This Film Could Help You Understand How Some People Experience Autism

Autism is a spectrum disorder, encompassing a wide range of conditions, symptoms, and experiences. But this short animation may help you understand, and empathize with, certain specific sensory and perception differences that some people with autism experience. Marisabel Fernandez and Alexander Bernard produced and directed Listen as their senior film at Ringling College of Art … Continued

io9

PETA Tries To Pretend Dairy Products Have Something To Do With Autism

This is the most cynical, horrifying thing I’ve heard in ages. PETA has restarted a campaign to try and pretend there’s some link between “autism and dairy products,” in an attempt to scare people into going Vegan. Update: We have a response from PETA. PETA put up a billboard similar to the image above in … Continued

ScienceBiology

Study of 1.3 Million Kids Reveals Vaccines Aren’t Associated with Autism

A meta-analysis including nearly 1.3 million children posted online last week in the journal Vaccine has demonstrated, once again, that there’s no causal link between vaccines and autism. The paper is an online “uncorrected proof.” That means it has already been through peer review and has been accepted, but there could still be a few … Continued