Dr on Autism in 2006

[Guest guest]

Hi, all.

Just completed watching this April 2006 video featuring Dr , the

most

famous nobel prize winner for co-discovering DNA and its double helix structure,

and it

turns out one of his primary projects these days, sponsored to the tune of $10

million

from private funding, is autism! His intention is to crack this diseases code

within three

years, ie, to see exactly what causes it within this time frame.

In hearing what he stated at this Google sponsored event a few miles from where

I reside

here in Silicon Valley, known to have among the highest rates of diagnosed

autism, it

strikes me that that he has a contrasting working hypothesis for the cause of

autism than

the methylation blocks-mitochondria dysfunction predisposing SNPs hypothesis

we've

seen discussed a lot on this list this year given Rich's view that CFS and

autism show a lot

of similarity. His emphasis seems to share at root that there is DNA gene

predisposition,

but apparantly he doesn't think the rates of autism are actually rising

dramatically over the

last quarter century nor that environmental issues like childhood vaccines play

an

important role.

He thinks the suggested dramatic increase in the numbers of autistics is

explained both by

the definition for autism having broadened greatly over the years and by a

culture of

parents purposely pressing for an autism diagnosis for their kids to help get

them into

special-gifted kid oriented schools that have been more popular in recent times.

He

seems to really buy the " male mind " dysfunction hypothesis for autism, but I

wonder if

he's caught-on to the issue of so many mothers of autistics seeming to have CFS

and that

CFS is predominantly an adult female disorder which commonly onsets or goes

full-blown

after emotional life tipping points, a " female mind " pattern it seems to me?

Anyway, check it out:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8220394453782681101 & q=%22key+to%22