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The Other End of the Autism Spectrum

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/the-other-end-of-the-autism-spectrum/

Published: April 29, 2025 12:10

In my previous post I wrote about how we think about and talk about autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and how RFK Jr misunderstands and exploits this complexity to weave his anti-vaccine crank narrative. There is also another challenge in the conversation…

How Should We Talk About Autism

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/how-should-we-talk-about-autism/

Published: April 28, 2025 11:31

RFK Jr.’s recent speech about autism has sparked a lot of deserved anger. But like many things in life, it’s even more complicated than you think it is, and this is a good opportunity to explore some of the issues surrounding this diagnosis. While the…

Transgene-Free Gene Editing in Plants

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/transgene-free-gene-editing-in-plants/

Published: April 24, 2025 11:59

Regulations are a classic example of a proverbial double-edged sword. They are essential to create and maintain a free and fair market, to prevent exploitation, and to promote safety and the public interest. Just look at 19th century America for countless…

Game Transfer Phenomenon

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/game-transfer-phenomenon/

Published: April 21, 2025 12:03

Have you ever been into a video game that you played for hours a day for a while? Did you ever experience elements of game play bleeding over into the real world? If you have, then you have experienced what psychologists call “game transfer phenomenon” or…

Possible Biosignature on K2-18b

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/possible-biosignature-on-k2-18b/

Published: April 17, 2025 12:00

Exoplanets are pretty exciting – in the last few decades we have gone from knowing absolutely nothing about planets beyond our solar system to having a catalogue of over 5,000 confirmed exoplanets. That’s still a small sample considering there are likely…

OK – But Are They Dire Wolves

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/ok-but-are-they-dire-wolves/

Published: April 14, 2025 11:58

Last week I wrote about the de-extinction of the dire wolf by a company, Colossal Biosciences. What they did was pretty amazing – sequence ancient dire wolf DNA and use that as a template to make 20 changes to 14 genes in the gray wolf genome via CRISPR.…

Bury Broadband and Electricity

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/bury-broadband-and-electricity/

Published: April 11, 2025 12:05

We may have a unique opportunity to make an infrastructure investment that can demonstrably save money over the long term – by burying power and broadband lines. This is always an option, of course, but since we are in the early phases of rolling out fiber…

De-extincting the Dire Wolf

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/de-extincting-the-dire-wolf/

Published: April 8, 2025 11:52

This really is just a coincidence – I posted yesterday about using AI and modern genetic engineering technology, with one application being the de-extinction of species. I had not seen the news from yesterday about a company that just announced it has…

Will AI Bring Us Jurassic Park

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/will-ai-bring-us-jurassic-park/

Published: April 7, 2025 12:04

I think it’s increasingly difficult to argue that the recent boom in artificial intelligence (AI) is mostly hype. There is a lot of hype, but don’t let that distract you from the real progress. The best indication of this is applications in scientific…

Is Planned Obsolescence Real

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/is-planned-obsolescence-real/

Published: April 4, 2025 12:54

Yes – it is well-documented that in many industries the design of products incorporates a plan for when the product will need to be replaced. A blatant example was in 1924 when an international meeting of lightbulb manufacturers decided to limit the…