Paul Dirac – a pioneer of quantum mechanics – displayed some of the classic signs of autism.Posted on 01/12/2009 7:29:22 AM PST by BGHater
As a new book speculates that 'Britain's Einstein' was autistic, an autism expert warns that a prenatal test for the condition would prevent brilliant scientists like Paul Dirac from ever being born
A new book on the greatest British physicist since Newton speculates that both his profound mathematical abilites and his extreme social awkwardness stemmed from undiagnosed autism.
The claims – from a biography of Paul Dirac by Graham Farmelo, The Strangest Man – tie in with an article on the BBC website from leading autism researcher Prof Simon Baron-Cohen. Baron-Cohen says we need a public debate about the prenatal diagnosis of autism. Although such a test is not yet available, it soon could be.
Baron-Cohen points out that the use of embryo selection during IVF to reject babies with autism genes might have the effect of preventing some individuals with brilliant mathematical abilities from being born.
More on Baron-Cohen's argument later, but first, Farmelo's book presents a highly detailed picture of a brilliant but profoundly odd man with an extremely troubled relationship with his parents. Given Dirac's contribution to science, Farmelo argues that he is shockingly under-appreciated and largely unknown in the UK, particularly in his home town of Bristol.
Dirac was one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. For example, in 1930 he predicted that the electron has an equivalent anti-particle, the positron – a notion that was greeted with scepticism and derision by some physicists at the time but was proved correct in experiments two years later.
Paul Dirac – a pioneer of quantum mechanics – displayed some of the classic signs of autism.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
“...to reject babies with...”
The 21st century *final solution.*
Evil....
My son is autistic. He has Asperger’s Syndrome. He his extremely bright, curious, loving, challenging and exhausting. Big boy, but he remains socially behind by two years. There are days when I just want to pull my hair out from the chaos. But what Mom doesn’t?
He sees the world in black and white, right and wrong. Guess what? I am proud of it. When he was taught about the Ten Commandments, he said Okay, that’s it. God gave us these rules and they are to be followed. His only problem is why other people don’t get it. Yes, his brain works differently. He can see spatial connections that look likes gobbledeegook to me. He is a good student, but horribly disorganized when left to his own devices.Guess what I am saying is it is a mistake to remove this gene. My husband and I would say no thank you. The more important opinion is he would too.
I think that good moms are hand picked by God. You have reason to be very proud, mom.
I have met autistic children, I don’t think they’re broken, I think they are special.
just wondering
Notice they only pick off those who are least able to defend themselves.
WELL noted. ;-(
So the epidemic of autism, could mean American that America is a generation away from having an unprecedented number of genuises.
I saw a fascinating show (probably National Geographic Channel) this morning that I had recorded. It was on the difference between male and female brains, but they talked about autism and savants. It was quite interesting and they did make the case about autisism and scientific thinking.
Ask 99.9% of everybody on this planet to design the chip they are utilizing to read this (in your computer) and they can’t. Some people are REALLY good at one thing and the entirety of humanity benefits.
I would like to know what causes it and what will the next generation be like.
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