Autism

This is probably the best site for general information on autism, it has so many links covering topics we talked about tonight, from symptoms to treatments, research and great interviews and information about Temple Grandin. John it talks about supposed/thoughts on causes, and new ways to "treat" autism. The site has links to information about autistic savants also.


Another site worth checking out is the National Alliance for Autism Research site, it has recent news about the "Autism Susceptibility Gene".
http://www.naar.org/

This last link is an example of the "treatments" that are being offered for children with autism. It's a commerical site but is just an idea of what parents will try to treat their children.
http://www.glutensolutions.com/autism.htm

article on autism

This is a pretty interesting (though short) article on autism. It's fairly new research, and it clarified some issues for me.

Thoughts on Emily Rose

Hey all!
I know that this is more of the fantasy realm of science fiction, but I thought it was interesting none the less.
I went to see the Exorcism of Emily Rose last night, and while I found some of it a bit far stretched, I was wondering what everyone else thought about demons and possessions. The Catholic Church seems to recognize these events--although perhaps not the one from the movie--as real occurences, but since I'm not Catholic I'm not sure how I feel. Sometimes I think that people just get so caught up in something that it is more of a mental phenomenon than a physical one.
But if anyone is Catholic and has a perspective matching that of the movie, that these possessions really happen, I would be interested to hear it. Or if you aren't Catholic and have some thoughts, that's good too.
I also thought about Mr. Chiang's work with 'Hell is the Absence of God' and how things like this didn't happen because Hell wasn't necessarily a bad place. His, of course, was a non-religious perspective, so that was interesting as well. I wonder what he would have to say about that movie and all the interest it created in demons and things of that nature.
The movie is well done I thought. If anyone enjoys Mr. King's stories they would enjoy this.

4th Article

The first article is by Jerry Oltion, an acclaimed SF writer, dealing with the aspects of writing a good science fiction story. We have discussed in class before, but I really enjoyed the examples he uses. Oltion's article is from the current issue of The Writer. In the article he lays out what he considers to be the six basic rules of science fiction writing. Throughout the article he emphasizes the need to tell a story instead of explaining the science behind it. His examples are great. He writes a basic paragraph and follows it with his own brand of SF translation. Oltion lists the following as the six key ingredients to good science fiction writing: pick a contemporary theme, use the right language, think scientifically, add speculation, tell a story, and choose the right subgenre. I think that this is a must read article. It is not only informative, but it is also beneficial to aspiring SF writers as well as a great guide to critiquing SF writing.

The second article is by Lev Grossman, Time magazine's book critic. I included this because I found it more amusing than informative to the topics being discussed.

Comment on Gene Patents

I was just going to comment on Sean's post. I agree that companies should not be able to patent genes, because this could do tremendous damage to medical advancement in years to come. I am a marketing major, so I do understand that sometimes it is necessary to patent certain technologies to protect a company from competition, but this is an area where a patent could restrict progress. I think that companies working on medical research should be working together to find cures, not working against each other. The more medical tests & trials that are undertaken only increases the chance that success will be achieved. Just a thought.

4th Article: Gene Patents

This article points out the interesting fact that hundreds of private firms and universities have paid to claim patents on certain human genes. This article states that "more than 4,000 genes, or 20 percent of the almost 24,000 human genes, have been claimed in U.S. patents." That seems like a lot of genes to me. Of course this wouldn't have a direct effect on us, but it would definately slow down research that could someday lead to medical advances.