In Asperger’s they say, “What Box?” — Tony Atwood
The world we live in today would be radically different without the contributions of autistic scientists. Everything from spacecraft and computers to MRI scanners, cellphones, and the Internet can be traced through autistic minds. At AASCEND‘s January 20 meeting AASCEND Co-Chair Gregory Yates explores the history of autism as rocket fuel for scientific innovation — obvious in the lives of autistic scientists Henry Cavendish and Paul Dirac, and in the out-of-the-box thinking of autistic “cousins” like Newton, Darwin, Kurt Godel, Alan Turing, and even Albert Einstein. Without autism and strongly autistic traits we would be living in a dark age.
Greg will also take a brief tour through his own scientific work on how brains are built, as detailed in his book Dragon Puzzle Story, and trace in detail exactly where autism played a role in its development. 
As computer programmers like to say about their oddly-behaving programs, and that one might also say about some autism, “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!” It’s the Autism Advantage in Science.
When: Sat Jan 20, 10am – noon
Where: The Arc of SF 1500 Howard St. @ 11th St. SF, CA 94103 map
Parking is often available in the garage at 255 12th Street, with a reasonable flat rate for Saturdays. There is also metered street parking for $2.25/hr