It looks like all the evidence now shows that mercury is the sole cause of autism. Just kidding. In fact, I just read this article over at Pharyngula that talks about the latest research into the genetic causes of autism. It’s a tremendously interesting read because it goes a long way to showing that there is no single cause, nor is there a single gene, but we’re making some progress in understanding what to look for despite all that.
I won’t rehash the article because between the original source and PZ’s explanation, I’d just be re-saying what’s been said, but the basic gist of it is that some research is showing that the issue appears to be Copy Number Variants in a rather large number of potential genes. This really isn’t a huge surprise given the fact that autism isn’t a disease, but a spectrum of related but distinct conditions.
It is easy to see why parents of autistic children and some researchers have believed for so long that the cause of autism was linked in some way to vaccinations, and it was important that we go down that road and verify that this was not the case. We did that. But we wound up doing it over and over and over, always with the same results and always with the hope that this would be the last time. When we focus the research on actually understanding something instead of proving or disproving an already disproved theory, we make headway. Let this be a lesson to us.
Jim
