An eight-year-old autistic boy disappears into a densely forested park in Virginia for five days. The frantic search to find a child who doesn’t understand he’s in danger: “Because of his autism, Robert probably didn’t know that he was lost. If he heard people coming through the woods, he might well have taken cover from […]
Search results
Posted inEditor's Pick
Navigating Love and Autism
From the beginning, their physical relationship was governed by the peculiar ways their respective brains processed sensory messages. Like many people with autism, each had uncomfortable sensitivities to types of touch or texture, and they came in different combinations. Jack recoiled when Kirsten tried to give him a back massage, pushing deeply with her palms. […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Radical New Autism Theory
A groundbreaking study suggests people with autism-spectrum disorders such as Asperger’s do not lack empathy—rather they feel others’ emotions too intensely to cope.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Live Your Best Life Ever!
Wish Away Cancer! Get A Lunchtime Face-Lift! Eradicate Autism! Turn Back The Clock! Thin Your Thighs! Cure Menopause! Harness Positive Energy! Erase Wrinkles! Banish Obesity! Live Your Best Life Ever!
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Broken Trust: Lessons from the Vaccine–Autism Wars
Researchers long ago rejected the theory that vaccines cause autism, yet many parents don’t believe them. Can scientists bridge the gap between evidence and doubt?
Posted inEditor's Pick
Autism as Academic Paradigm
The unacceptable ways we sometimes talk and think about the autism spectrum.
Posted inEditor's Pick
An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All
The underlying argument has not changed: Vaccines harm America’s children, and doctors like Paul Offit are paid shills of the drug industry. To be clear, there is no credible evidence to indicate that any of this is true. None. Twelve epidemiological studies have found no data that links the MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) vaccine to autism; six […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Autism’s First Child
Children with autism will become adults with autism, some 500,000 of them in this decade alone. What then? Meet Donald Gray Triplett, 77, of Forest, Mississippi. He was the first person ever diagnosed with autism.
Posted inUncategorized
Brendan Maher: My Top 5 Longreads of 2010
I’m the biology features editor for the news team at Nature, the UK-based science journal. Longreads kindly asked me to offer up my five favourite couldn’t-put-down features for the year, and I was happy to comply. The focus on biology wasn’t intentional, but I did purposely keep features from Nature out of the running (it’s […]
Posted inUncategorized
It’s easy to turn away. It’s much easier than looking directly. He walks quickly with his head down, arms stiff at his sides. Or he paces the room and is unable to stop. Unable to stop making repetitive motions and sounds, fragments of sentences, noises that have no connection to the context (screech, yelp, pop, […]
