Autism affects as many as 1.5 million Americans, and the number is increasing, according to the Autism Society of America. It is estimated that 1 in 150 births involve children with some form of autism.

Autism can be caused by a variety of genetic factors, but a new Brown University study focused on one particular area — the Fragile X protein. If that protein is mutated, it leads to Fragile X syndrome, which causes mental retardation and is often accompanied by autism.

Women who stopped taking the postmenopausal hormone combination of estrogen plus progestin experienced a marked decline in breast cancer risk which was unrelated to mammography utilization change, according to a study from the Women's Health Initiative led by a Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed) investigator that was published today in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Breast cancer in the United States began to decline in 2003, after the Women's Health Initiative's initial findings that combined hormone therapy was related to higher risk of breast cancer and heart problems.

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine say they have discovered a gene that when mutated causes obesity by dampening the body's ability to burn energy while leaving appetite unaffected. 

The new research could potentially lead to new pharmacologic approaches to treating obesity in humans that do not target the brain, according to study senior author Yi Zhang, Ph.D., Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor of biochemistry and biophysics in the UNC School of Medicine. Zhang is also a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

Show Me The Science Month Day 8

A tuatara may look like an iguana, but it's a reptile in a category all its own. Tuataras are most closely related to lizards and snakes, but in some ways they are oddballs among reptiles, with unique characteristics among reptiles, like their affinity for cool weather, their nocturnal lifestyle, a third eye on top of the skull, and vertebrae that more closely resemble those of fish and amphibians than reptiles. Male tuataras also have another odd feature - they lack a certain member, which means their reproductive behavior differs from other lizards.


Image courtesy of the Wikipedia Commons

SAN FRANCISCO, February 4 /PRNewswire/ --

- Commission within the China Ministry of Industry Information Technology and Bureau within the China Ministry of Culture Declare Formal Support for the Definitive Event for Chinese Developers

Evolution may be viewed as a controversial subject by much of the US population, but evolutionary biologists frequently complain that this controversy is manufactured by opponents of evolution who have a very flawed understanding of what the science of evolution is. This poor grasp of the science was demonstrated once again in a talk given by Intelligent Design advocate Jonathan Wells, who claims that "DNA does not control embryo development."

Wells, who has a PhD in biology, (I don't know what the director of graduate studies at UC Berkeley was smoking), has repeatedly demonstrated his cluelessness about basic elements of biology, and he is a clear illustration of why a PhD does not necessarily indicate anything about its holder's knowledge. Over at Pharyngula, PZ Myers has a thorough takedown of Wells' absurd talk. The talk is based on the bizarre claim that "DNA does not control embryo development." If that's true, Wells argues, then the whole tottering neo-Darwinian edifice collapses, or something like that.

Recently I read on this site Massimo Pigliucci’s articles on Hard and Soft Science.  As usual, though, I at first sailed over the main theme, and picking up one or two phrases went off on one of my tangents.  The first of these phrases was:

    the long interval on the question of the nature of gravity between Newton and Einstein.

which led me to think that:

HOUSTON, February 3 /PRNewswire/ --

AEG Affiliated Energy Group has been retained by a large Texas retail electricity provider seeking to explore strategic merger, acquisition and sale opportunities. The REP has strong historic customer growth rates, substantially positive EBITDA of approximately US$15,000,000 on an annual basis and serves almost 100,000 meters with load exceeding 2,000,000 megawatt hours per year.

LONDON, February 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumers should be very careful when looking at 'free' or subsidised laptop deals, claims broadband comparison website Broadband Genie. As well as ending up tied to a highly restrictive two-year contract which could soon become poor value, customers face a very limited choice of machines.

Many people are buying mobile broadband for the first time, and getting their first laptop, perhaps thinking it is free of charge, said Broadband Genie editor Chris Marling. These deals can sound great on paper, but in truth the choices are very limited, the contracts long, and consumers may get more value from buying a laptop and dongle separately.

Kudos to Sally Jenkins at the Washington Post for the best article I've read so far on the Michael Phelps non-scandal. I thought I was going to read a humorous article about one of my favorite TV shows (The Big Bang Theory), not connecting the dots with Willie Nelson's favorite pasttime.