Are Scientists More Likely to Have Autistic Kids?
Cohen-Baron estimates that 44 percent of all males and 14 percent of females are systemizers, and he contends that a recent rise in rates of autism stems in part from the fact that systemizers are meeting and mating more often now than in the past. Surveys have shown that children of two engineers have a two-fold risk of being autistic. “The theory is new, but the idea that mating patterns may have increased the incidence of autism is not,” Phil Ross (a veteran science writer and an old friend) writes in “When Engineers’ Genes Collide,” a story in the online version of the technology journal IEEE Spectrum. “In Silicon Valley, where systemizers of both sexes abound, the notion has been the subject of nervous jokes for years.” I usually whack coverage of human genetics, which has a history of sensational claims that don’t stand up to scrutiny, but I’m giving Ross’s fascinating story a cautious pat. I’d love to know what systemizing readers think. via stevens.edu Is There a Link between E
