Reality is always more complicated than you think.
Profile
Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine focusing in Neuroscience. He is due to graduate in 2032. He received a BS and a MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University -- where he spent most of his time drinking heavily and building vegetable catapults instead of learning information that would now be eminently useful. When he is not failing terrifically to perform his sworn duties, he enjoys watching bad movies, ethnic food, and running.
Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.
Jake is joined periodically by two wonderful guest bloggers: Kara Contreary and Kate Seip. See the About Page.
DISCLAIMERS: 1) Jake Young is not a licensed physician (yet). He is merely a medical student. The information published on this site is not intended for use in medical decision making. Please seek advice from a licensed, medical professional before making any health decisions. 2) The opinions expressed are my own or those of my co-bloggers. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments we currently attend.
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Autism:
Not to reignite the whole issue with DeSoto and Hitlan (here and here), but Epi Wonk emailed me an excellent critique of the paper. (The whole issue was about the relationship between mercury and autism. Ip, 2004 measured mercury levels...
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Posted on July 16, 2008 7:31 AM • 0 Comments •
The subpeona against Kathleen Seidel has been quashed. ENDORSED ORDER granting MOTION to Quash Subpoena. Text of Order: "Granted. Attorney Clifford Shoemaker is ordered to show cause within 10 days why he should not be sanctioned under Fed R Civ...
Posted on April 22, 2008 7:48 AM • 4 Comments •
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about Kathleen Seidel, a blogger at neurodiversity.com, who was being intimidated via subpeona by a lawyer for anti-vaccinationists. The lawyer, Clifford Shoemaker, represents plaintiffs in a lawsuit against vaccine manufacturers alleging that mercury in...
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Posted on April 21, 2008 2:46 PM • 4 Comments •
You have got to be friggin' kidding me!? Kathleen Seidel, blogger at neurodiversity.com, has been subpoenaed by Rev. Lisa Sykes and Seth Sykes to appear in their case against the Bayer company. Their case alleges that mercury additives to vaccines...
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Posted on April 3, 2008 7:51 PM • 16 Comments •
I nearly aerosolized Diet Pepsi all over my computer screen when I read this: It a town hall meeting Friday in Texas, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., declared that "there's strong evidence" that thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that was once in...
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Posted on March 3, 2008 2:56 PM • 10 Comments •
The author of a controversial paper about the link between mercury and autism responds to her critics.
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Posted on January 7, 2008 3:03 PM • 4 Comments •
I wrote earlier today about mercury and autism, and how I thought a criticism of an earlier paper on statistical grounds was fair. Some of the commentors including Orac took me to task saying that the original analysis was indeed...
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Posted on November 29, 2007 7:29 PM • 2 Comments •
I was struck by this paper that came out in the Journal of Child Neurology, looking back at previous study of mercury levels in autistic children. DeSoto and Hitlan looked back at Ip et al. 2004, a case control study...
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Posted on November 29, 2007 10:37 AM • 8 Comments •
Less than a week after I had to correct myself on autism and face perception, I read another article on the subject that has me skeptical. Let's see if we can apply what we learned before. The conclusions from my...
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Posted on May 8, 2007 9:53 AM • 4 Comments •
Earlier this week in the post Neurological "Personhood," I made a comment about individuals with autism. My comment was as follows: 1) Some individuals do not show normal development in the system of identifying personhood described. For example, individuals with...
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Posted on May 1, 2007 10:00 AM • 8 Comments •
I see that Simon Baron-Cohen has a piece in Seed about his theory of autism. I am really skeptical of many of his arguments related to autism, so I thought I would discuss a couple of them. Here is his...
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Posted on November 13, 2006 9:38 AM • 5 Comments •
Did you know that Sacha Baron Cohen, star of the Borat movie, and Simon Baron Cohen, a prominent autism scientist, are related? I didn't. They are cousins. Baron Cohen, 35, rarely gives interviews out of character. He guards his privacy...
Posted on November 7, 2006 10:57 AM • 5 Comments •
I haven't had time to read it all yet (it is sort of long and technical), but a new model by Grossberg and Seidman purports to explain how normal cognitive processes go wrong in autism -- a pretty tall order...
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Posted on July 10, 2006 11:18 PM • 0 Comments •
