• There is no ‘gay gene.’ There is no ‘straight gene.’ Sexuality is just complex, study confirms

    There is no ‘gay gene.’ There is no ‘straight gene.’ Sexuality is just complex, study confirms

    Aug 29, 2019 10:53 PM EDT

    ... what GWAS hunts down. The technique can be used to suss out why certain people (and their particular genetic variations) correlate with health conditions like autism, physical traits like curly hair or colorblindness, behaviors like handedness or emotions like loneliness. What they found This GWAS study found that, like with ...

  • 'Sesame Street' and Sally Field to receive Kennedy Center award

    'Sesame Street' and Sally Field to receive Kennedy Center award

    Jul 18, 2019 04:59 PM EDT

    ... on the show's original home, PBS. In recent years, the creators have worked to embrace more modern issues, introducing a puppet named Julia with autism. The co-founders of "Sesame Street," Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, will accept the award on behalf of the show. Ronstadt was one ...

  • Drag Queen Story Hour offers a different kind of page-turner

    Drag Queen Story Hour offers a different kind of page-turner

    Jul 02, 2019 10:15 PM EDT

    ... Griffin: In the Big Apple, Drag Queen Story Hours have become so popular that the chapter now offers events in Spanish and for children with autism and other special needs. The chapter also hosts drag queen fashion design and makeup workshops for older kids. The point, Aimee said, is to ...

  • Smartphones aren’t making millennials grow horns. Here’s how to spot a bad study

    Smartphones aren’t making millennials grow horns. Here’s how to spot a bad study

    Jun 25, 2019 04:05 PM EDT

    ... and this episode offer a reminder about the modern news cycle. History shows us -- such as with Andrew Wakefield’s retracted study on measles and autism -- that the stakes are high when reporting on science and health. Such misinformation erodes the public’s ability to comprehend what is empirically right ...

  • How sanctions, weather and a bad harvest have left North Koreans without enough to eat

    How sanctions, weather and a bad harvest have left North Koreans without enough to eat

    Jun 20, 2019 10:30 PM EDT

    ... Yoon, on the right, has worked in North Korea for more than a decade and created this rehabilitation center for children with cerebral palsy and autism, children like Oo-Ein , a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy. After 11 months of therapy and treatment, she walked for the first time. Yoon says ...

  • How bad is the measles comeback? Here’s 70 years of data

    How bad is the measles comeback? Here’s 70 years of data

    Jun 18, 2019 05:04 PM EDT

    1998 In a paper that was later retracted and discredited, British researcher Andrew Wakefield questions the safety of the MMR vaccine in Lancet, claiming a connection between immunization and autism. The report receives widespread media coverage. Immunization rates in the United Kingdom plummet in the years after, and the discredited ...

  • That 'wow' moment that charmed Boston's concertgoers

    That 'wow' moment that charmed Boston's concertgoers

    May 17, 2019 03:00 PM EDT

    ... t mean to be disruptive, said his grandfather, Stephen Mattin, who took Ronan to the concert. His grandson, Mattin explained, has a disorder on the autism spectrum, and often expresses himself differently than other people. "I can count on one hand the number of times that [he's] spontaneously ever ...

  • There’s a measles outbreak. Do you need another shot?

    There’s a measles outbreak. Do you need another shot?

    Apr 27, 2019 02:20 PM EDT

    ... they were confined to quarters on campus or sent home— and President Donald Trump, who formerly spread misinformation about vaccination and its false connection to autism, encouraged unvaccinated children to get immunized. If the U.S. loses its “measles elimination” status, it will join Venezuela as the only other country ...

  • California expands its quarantine as U.S. deals with worst measles outbreak since 2000

    California expands its quarantine as U.S. deals with worst measles outbreak since 2000

    Apr 26, 2019 10:50 PM EDT

    ... even now, with the demonstration that this is a very contagious disease, the misinformation that this is a vaccine that causes serious adverse events like autism, which it definitely doesn't, and the manifestation that right now in real time we're seeing outbreaks, to still protest about getting vaccinated ...

  • U.S. measles cases hit highest mark in 25 years

    U.S. measles cases hit highest mark in 25 years

    Apr 24, 2019 08:15 PM EDT

    ... comebacks since then, including 667 cases in 2014. Public health experts say some U.S. communities have low vaccination rates because of the spread of bad information — especially the now-debunked notion that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine is linked to autism — through social media, pamphlets, hotlines and other means.