Comments on: Two Studies Make Progress Probing the Genetic Roots of Autism

By: Jo

Jo — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:43:46 +0000

@bensmyson:

“Maybe the gene is somehow triggered around 12-15 months”

Perfectly plausible to anyone with even the most rudimentary understanding of gene expression.

By: Bob Snyder

Bob Snyder — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:26:53 +0000

And Nick, are you promoting Eugenics?

By: Bob Snyder

Bob Snyder — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:23:23 +0000

I think people who have no background in biology or neuroscience shouldn’t speculate on what may or may not cause something. And bensmyson, 20 generations? That would be about… 500 years?

And big john, you’re joking right? We’re not talking about research into discerning the shape of the earth to settle a flat vs. round debate. The cause(s) of autism is a very contentious discussion. I hope you were joking but the fact of the matter is, even if you weren’t, somebody probably would have said the same thing.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:54:03 +0000

Autism is evolution in action – just the kind of evolution that would not get passed down in the wild. Many autistic people are able to lead fairly normal lives, many are not. Some appear to be super-geniuses but only in very narrowly specific ways (but then again almost any genius is smart in a narrow way – a brain surgeon can’t fly a rocket or build a house) – but in a less civilized milieu few if any would survive to pass on their genes. More and more will, it makes me wonder what the next 100 years of humans is going to look like, because science will be battling evolution on this front.

By: bigjohn756

bigjohn756 — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:14:12 +0000

Why bother with this research when everyone knows that vaccines cause autism?

By: bensmyson

bensmyson — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:33:07 +0000

Maybe the gene is somehow triggered around 12-15 months and skips 20 generations (at least it did in my family). Otherwise you’d think autism was caused by vaccines.