On Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 11:19 AM, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> wrote:
I do not think there has been an actual increase in autism. More cases are > being diagnosed. I think some are not real. Alzheimer's and cancer is > increasing mainly because there is no cure for them and the population is > aging. > My guess as to autism and Alzheimer's -- the increase over the last few decades has been real and substantial, and it has not merely or even perhaps primarily been a due to increased reporting or changes in diagnostic technique. Some other possible explanations: (1) trace pollutants have been introduced into the environment that are difficult to detect and/or have been assumed benign up to now (e.g., some types of plastic); (2) these diseases are primarily epigenetic in nature (my favorite of the two possibilities). Regarding (2), a prediction for the coming century: Lamarck will be revived and we'll learn that offspring can inherit traits from their parents that were acquired rather than innate, through the mechanisms of epigenetic development and transmission. Genetics will come to be seen to be a crude instrument that is capable only of explaining the very big and obvious differences seen in different organisms of the same species. Eric
