26 сентября 2025
Audio long read: Autism is on the rise — what’s really behind the increase?
0
0
In April, Robert F. Kennedy Jr held a press conference about rising diagnoses of autism, and said he would soon be announcing a study to find the responsible agent. Although Kennedy said that environmental factors are the main cause of autism, research has shown that genetics plays a bigger part. Also, the rise in prevalence, many researchers say, is
predominantly caused by an increase in diagnoses rather than a true rise in the underlying symptoms and traits.
Although the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a US$50 million to fund studies on the causes of autism, many researchers were dismayed that these developments seemed to ignore decades of work on the well-documented rise in diagnoses and on causes of the developmental condition.
This is an audio version of our Feature: Autism is on the rise — what’s really behind the increase? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Плейлист
Nature Podcast
Anecdotal stories suggesting that weight-loss drugs can help people shake long-standing addictions have been spreading fast in the past few years, through online forums, weight-loss clinics and news h...
00:40 What a trove of potato genomes reveals about the humble spudResearchers have created a ‘pangenome’ containing the genomes of multiple potato types, something they believe can help make it easier...
Nature: Asteroids, antibiotics and ants: a year of remarkable scienceIn this episode:1:58 Evidence of ancient brine on an asteroidSamples taken from the asteroid Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft...
00:46 The gifts that sparked a love of scienceNature put a call out for readers to tell us about memorable presents that first got them interested in science, or mementos of their life in research. Th...
00:46 Evidence of the earliest fire Baked soil, ancient tools, and materials that could be used to start fires show that Neanderthals were making fire in the UK 400,000 years ago — the earliest eviden...
00:46 How satellite mega-constellations could ruin space-based astronomyThe ability of space-based telescopes to image the distant Universe could be in peril, according to new research investigating t...
CRISPR-based gene editing has revolutionized modern biology, but these tools are unable to access the DNA that resides inside mitochondria. Researchers are eager to access and edit this DNA to underst...
00:46 Martian ‘micro-lightning’The sounds of ‘micro-lightning’ have been recorded by NASA’s Perseverance rover, ending a long search for the phenomenon on Mars. A lack of suitable equipment has made i...
00:45 A molecule that delivers insulin through the skinResearchers have developed a skin-permeable polymer that can deliver insulin into the body, which they say could one day offer an alternative to...
Yoshua Bengio, considered by many to be one of the godfathers of AI, has long been at the forefront of machine-learning research . However, his opinions on the technology have shifted in recent years ...
00:45 A coronal mass ejection from a distant starResearchers have detected what they say is the strongest evidence yet of a coronal mass ejection (CME) coming from a star other than our Sun. CMEs are...
00:45 The debate around NanotyrannusA hotly debated species of dinosaur, assumed by many to be a juvenile T. rex, is actually a separate species, according to new research. Nanotyrannus was a dinosaur...
00:47 How bowhead whales live so longResearchers have uncovered a protein that enhances DNA repair and may explain how bowhead whales can live more than 200 years. The protein, cold-induced RNA-bindin...
Advice on how to get good sleep is everywhere, with the market for sleep aids worth more than US$100 billion annually. However, scientists warn that online hacks and pricey tools aren’t always effecti...
00:48 How hunger, hormones and aggression interact in mouse brainsResearchers have uncovered the neural mechanisms that underlie an aggressive behaviour in mice prompted by hunger and hormonal state....
00:46 A multi-variant avian flu vaccine that could enhance pandemic preparednessA vaccine capable of protecting against multiple strains of avian influenza virus may be a step closer, according to new...
00:48 The stereotypes hidden in Internet imagesStereotyped assumptions about women’s ages and their perceived job suitability are enhanced by Internet imagery, according to new research. A study of hu...
00:50 How ancient viruses drive modern human developmentResearch suggests that ancient viral-DNA embedded in the human genome is playing a key role in early embryo development. Around 8% of our genome...
In April, Robert F. Kennedy Jr held a press conference about rising diagnoses of autism, and said he would soon be announcing a study to find the responsible agent. Although Kennedy said that environm...
00:48 New insights into tick-borne encephalitisResearchers have identified a key protein that helps tick-borne encephalitis virus enter the brain. In rare cases an infection can lead to serious neurol...
Science journalist Lizzie Wade’s first book, Apocalypse: A Transformative Exploration of Humanity's Resilience Through Cataclysmic Events explores some of the cataclysmic events that humans have faced...
00:50 The AI tool that predicts disease riskResearchers have developed an AI tool that can calculate a person’s risk of developing over 1,000 different diseases, sometimes years in advance. The system...
In 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) facilities in the US directly detected ripples in space-time, known as gravitational waves. These waves were produced by the fin...
00:45 Attributing extreme heat events to major energy producersMajor energy producers increased the likelihood and intensity of heatwaves, according to research published in Nature. Using data from an...
In 2016, Brian Wansink wrote a blog post that prompted scientific sleuths to investigate his work. They found evidence of data manipulation, and, after several news articles and two investigations by...
Raising mosquitoes to tackle disease might sound like an odd concept, but that’s what a facility in Brazil is aiming to do. Millions of mosquitoes are produced there every week, but these insects carr...
00:45 The ant queen that can produce two different speciesResearchers have made an unusual observation that appears at odds with biology: an ant, known as the Iberian Harvester Ant can produce offspri...
The search for signs of consciousness has expanded, thanks to advanced neuroimaging techniques. These tools allow researchers to detect consciousness in unresponsive humans, and now researchers are lo...
00:48 How the 18th-Century 'Great Fear’ spread across rural FranceIn the late 1700s, rural France was beset with rapidly spreading rumours of aristocratic plots to suppress revolutionary ideas. But ho...
00:46 Electrochemical fusionResearchers have used electrochemistry to increase the rates of nuclear fusion reactions in a desktop reactor. Fusion energy promises abundant clean energy, but fusion even...