I ask you, is this guy autistic?

According to claims by neuroscientist Simon Baron-Cohen (yes, he's related to British comedian Sasha Baron-Cohen) of Cambridge University, he may not be, but if he married a woman like him, they might have a child that is. Baron-Cohen says he noticed a strong correlation in people that, he contends, have high levels of "systems thinking" and low levels of empathy and that get into the fields of engineering and mathematics. In fact, among geographic areas have a high density of people in those industries, there are also higher occurrences of children with autism, particularly kids with a mild form of autism called Asperger's.

It's already well-documented that autism runs in families, which has lead many scientists to conclude that it may be some genetic abnormality. Of course, other explanations for autism include diet rich in preservatives, vaccines (which has been debunked, everybody. Enough already), pesticide exposure and the relative age of the parents. There have been plenty of theories, and though Baron-Cohen acknowledges that further study needs to be done, he believes the correlational nature of kids with autism in areas rich with individuals in the mathematical and engineering industries is a strong lead.

Much of his evidence is anecdotal at this point. There has been some study, according to TIME, of the rate of children with Asperger's in Eidhoven, Denmark's version of Silicon Valley. In Eindhoven, children are diagnosed with Asperger's at a rate 3 to 4 times that of the national average. Baron-Cohen's contention, that individuals with "comparable cognitive profiles" that get together and have kids, tend to pass on those profiles to their children, but they turn up in a much more pronounced way. A greater reliance (and ability) on systems thinking, and even further detachment from basic empathic impulses; an inability to pick up on social cues and emotions, etc. Baron-Cohen, reporting to NPR, says he first thought of this when he noticed how much the personality profile of a person with autism matched the engineers and mathematicians that he knew.

As for whether two fairly anti-social brainiacs are doomed to spawn an autistic child, it's unclear. According to THE WEEK, parents that have on autistic child have a 1 in 20 chance of having another, which implies that something within the parents makeup accounts for the autistic tendencies. Is that cause for all of the "Engineering Men Seeking Mathy Ladies" dating websites to shut down? Not necessarily. TIME reports of Baron-Cohen, "he warns against drawing simple conclusions from his work about who shouldn't marry whom. 'It's very easy to become alarmist and cause panic.'" Although the theory is fairly unsubstantiated, and merits much more study by even the author's own admission, it's already garnered a lot of attention. Many feel the theory is simply based on anecdotal evidence and hearsay (which isn't entirely untrue), and it has become fairly controversial within the autism research community. That said, Baron-Cohen is somewhat of a celebrity in that community, and he has garnered some support simply by dint of his previous work and reputation in the field. Perhaps as more research is published, we'll be able to definitively say that Nick Burns is indeed autistic, or at least in danger of passing on the condition.