Science
RFK Jr. said his agency will find the cause of autism. These researchers have actually been looking
The annual meeting of the International Society for Autism Research took place in Seattle this week.
The field’s premiere scientific conference was scheduled to be held in the Emerald City five years ago, until COVID-19 dashed those plans. This time, U.S. autism researchers face a very different kind of crisis: massive cuts to federal funding, Cabinet members making false statements about the complex neurological condition they study, and a series of confusing and potentially worrisome policy announcements about autism research.
In April, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services disclosed that it’s planning a $50-million “comprehensive research effort aimed at understanding the causes of [autism spectrum disorder] and improving treatments,” a department spokesperson said. The effort was spurred by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s stated goal of determining the cause of autism, a neurological and developmental condition whose symptoms cluster around challenges with communication, social interaction and sensory processing.
At his first news conference last month, Kennedy made a number of scientifically inaccurate statements about autism: that it is preventable (there is no evidence that it is); that studying its genetic underpinnings is a “dead end” (genes play a significant role); that children with autism “will never hold a job” (autism presents in myriad different ways and many autistic people work) and, perhaps most significantly, that “we know it’s an environmental exposure” (this is, to put it mildly, far from an established fact.)
On Thursday, an HHS spokesperson said that the agency was developing “a secure data repository” of “large-scale, de-identified data to better understand the causes of conditions like autism and chronic diseases,” similar to the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program.
This was a clarification of National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya’s statement during an April 21 meeting with NIH advisors that the study would draw in part from personal health information gathered across a variety of sources, including insurance claims, pharmacy chain medication records and fitness tracker data, a plan widely reported as an “autism registry.”
HHS has otherwise offered minimal detail on the research effort, which Kennedy initially said would return results as early as September. (Bhattacharya has since pushed back on that timeline, saying that grants would only start to go out to participating researchers by the end of summer.)
A half-dozen senior scientists interviewed for this article said that neither they nor anyone they knew of had been consulted.
“I’m someone who knows a lot of people in this field,” said Helen Tager-Flusberg, professor emerita at Boston University and director of its Center for Autism Research Excellence, and “not a single person I know has been approached.”
Tager-Flusberg is a member of HHS’ Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, which advises the agency and Congress on autism research. Since Trump took office in January, she said, the committee has not received any communications from HHS, and has not been informed or consulted about the latest research initiative.
“With one hand, [Kennedy‘s] offering $50 million in new research, and with the other hand, they have already removed a significantly large number of grants that are already carrying out cutting-edge research on autism,” she said. “NIH has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into [studying] causes of autism over the last three decades, and so it’s disturbing to hear that it’s all being dismissed.”
The U.S. government is by far the nation’s biggest investor in autism research. In 2019 and 2020, the most recent period for which data are available, federal grants totaling $350 million supported 82.5% of U.S. autism research, with the remainder coming from private sources.
“Federal funding is the engine by which research runs, and it is certainly the engine by which autism research has made the incredible advances that it has over the last 25 years,” said Matthew Lerner, an associate professor at Drexel University’s AJ Drexel Autism Institute and a board member of the International Society for Autism Research.
Several researchers also said that they found Kennedy’s insistence that autism stems from exposure to an undetermined environmental source perplexing. The role of environmental factors in autism is already a major focus area for government-funded research, they said, albeit in a more nuanced way.
When scientists speak of “environmental exposures,” they are referring to any nongenetic influence before or after birth. These can range from prenatal stress hormones to neighborhood pollutants to the school a child attends.
“Any scientist will tell you that this is such a complex thing that you can’t just be looking at one [cause], that you have to be thinking about the role of environment, the role of genetics, how they interact, and how that changes over the lifespan,” said Alycia Halladay, chief science officer of the nonprofit Autism Science Foundation. “We do know that there are a lot of environmental exposures that have not been studied. We can’t say it is an environmental toxin.”
Dr. Shafali Jeste was more blunt.
“This is what we dedicate our lives to,” the Los Angeles pediatric neurologist said. “If we knew there could be one environmental cause, wouldn’t we all be out there hunting for it, and maybe having already found it, given that we’ve been doing research for 20 years?”
The cuts and chaos of the second Trump administration are already having an affect on the research community.
Several people interviewed for this article asked not to be quoted by name for fear of retaliation, or specified that they could only speak on behalf of themselves and not their employer, at the institution’s request.
In late April, Tager-Flusberg founded the Coalition of Autism Scientists, a group of senior researchers united around the shared goals of pushing back on disinformation and advocating for evidence-based research approaches.
More than 200 fellow scientists signed up immediately, she said. But when younger researchers have asked to join, she has discouraged them from doing so. Speaking out could cost them their jobs.
“I don’t really have anything to lose,” she said. But “the last thing I would want is to put anyone’s career in jeopardy.”
Our universe might be chock-full of cosmic wonder, but you can observe only a fraction of astronomical phenomena with the naked eye. Meteor showers, natural fireworks that streak brightly across the night sky, are one of them.
The latest observable meteor shower will be the Lyrids, which has been active since April 14 and is forecast to continue through April 30. The shower reaches its peak April 21 to 22, or Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
According to NASA, the Lyrids are one of the oldest known meteor showers, and have been enjoyed by stargazers for nearly 3,000 years. Their bright, speedy streaks are caused by the dusty debris from a comet named Thatcher. They appear to spring from the constellation Lyra, which right now can be seen in the eastern sky at night in the Northern Hemisphere.
The moon will be about 27 percent full tonight, appearing as a thick crescent in the sky, according to the American Meteor Society.
To get a hint at when to best watch for the Lyrids, you can use this tool, which relies on data from the Global Meteor Network. It shows fireball activity levels in real time.
And while you gaze at the heavens, keep an eye out for other stray meteors streaking across the night sky. Skywatchers are reporting that the amount of fireballs is double what is usually seen by this point in the year.
Where meteor showers come from
There is a chance you might see a meteor on any given night, but you are most likely to catch one during a shower. Meteor showers are caused by Earth passing through the rubble trailing a comet or asteroid as it swings around the sun. This debris, which can be as small as a grain of sand, leaves behind a glowing stream of light as it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Meteor showers occur around the same time every year and can last for days or weeks. But there is only a small window when each shower is at its peak, which happens when Earth reaches the densest part of the cosmic debris. The peak is the best time to look for a shower. From our point of view on Earth, the meteors will appear to come from the same point in the sky.
The Perseid meteor shower, for example, peaks in mid-August from the constellation Perseus. The Geminids, which occur every December, radiate from the constellation Gemini.
How to watch a meteor shower
Michelle Nichols, the director of public observing at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, recommends forgoing the use of telescopes or binoculars while watching a meteor shower.
“You just need your eyes and, ideally, a dark sky,” she said.
That’s because meteors can shoot across large swaths of the sky, so observing equipment can limit your field of view.
Some showers are strong enough to produce up to 100 streaks an hour, according to the American Meteor Society, though you probably won’t see that many.
“Almost everybody is under a light-polluted sky,” Ms. Nichols said. “You may think you’re under a dark sky, but in reality, even in a small town, you can have bright lights nearby.”
Planetariums, local astronomy clubs or even maps like this one can help you figure out where to go to escape excessive light. The best conditions for catching a meteor shower are a clear sky with no moon or cloud cover, sometime between midnight and sunrise. (Moonlight affects visibility in the same way as light pollution, washing out fainter sources of light in the sky.) Make sure to give your eyes at least 30 minutes to adjust to seeing in the dark.
Ms. Nichols also recommends wearing layers, even during the summer. “You’re going to be sitting there for quite a while, watching,” she said. “It’s going to get chilly, even in August.”
Bring a cup of cocoa or tea for even more warmth. Then lie back, scan the sky and enjoy the show.
Where weather is least likely to affect your view
Storm systems sweep across the country in early spring, and some will be obscuring skies tonight. But there will still be plenty of areas with clear skies, particularly in parts of the central United States.
“The best spot is going to be in the Upper Midwest,” said Rich Bann, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center.
Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa will offer especially good sky-viewing weather and a beach on the Great Lakes could be a nice spot to look up at the stars.
But don’t expect to view the show from Chicago, as Illinois could see some thunderstorms. The weather will be better in the Northern and Central Plains, particularly the eastern Dakotas.
High, wispy clouds are expected over the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys and into parts of the Mid-Atlantic. But, Mr. Bann said, “you may be able to see some shooting stars through thin clouds.”
Clouds will be draped across much of the Southeast and the Northeast, though there could be some clearing in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia. Remember, the meteors could be visible all night long. If you look outside and see clouds, try again later.
Catching the spectacle will be challenging across much of the West, particularly from Washington into Northern California, where a storm system is bringing rain and snow. That system will move east overnight.
There are likely to be some pockets of clear skies at times across southern Nevada, northwest Arizona and southwest Utah, Mr. Bann said.
Amy Graff contributed reporting.
WASHINGTON — Amid growing national security concerns, the FBI said Tuesday that it has launched a broad investigation in the deaths or disappearances of at least 10 scientists and staff connected to highly sensitive research, including four from the Los Angeles area.
“The FBI is spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists. We are working with the Department of Energy, Department of War, and with our state and state and local law enforcement partners to find answers,” the agency said in a statement.
The FBI’s announcement comes after the House Oversight Committee announced that it would investigate reports of the disappearance and deaths of the scientists, sending letters seeking information from the agencies involved in the federal inquiry as well as NASA, which owns the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, where three of the missing or dead scientists worked.
“If the reports are accurate, these deaths and disappearances may represent a grave threat to U.S. national security and to U.S. personnel with access to scientific secrets,” Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the committee, and Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) wrote in the letters.
President Trump told reporters last week that he had been briefed on the missing and dead scientists, which he described as “pretty serious stuff.” He said at the time that he expected answers on whether the deaths were connected “in the next week and a half.”
Michael David Hicks, who studied comets and asteroids at JPL, was the first of the scientists who disappeared or died. He died on July 30, 2023, at the age of 59. No cause of death was disclosed.
A year later, JPL physicist Frank Maiwald died at 61, with no cause of death disclosed.
Two other Los Angeles scientists are part of the string of deaths and disappearances.
On June 22, 2025, Monica Jacinto Reza, a materials scientist at JPL, disappeared while on a hike near Mt. Waterman in the San Gabriel Mountains.
On Feb. 16, Caltech astrophysicist Carl Grillmair was fatally shot on the porch of his Llano home. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department arrested Freddy Snyder, 29, in connection with the shooting. Snyder had been arrested in December on suspicion of trespassing on Grillmair’s property.
Snyder has been charged with murder.
There is no evidence at this point that the deaths and disappearances, which occurred over a span of four years, are connected.
A spokesperson for NASA, which owns JPL, said in a statement on X that the agency is “coordinating and cooperating with the relevant agencies in relation to the missing scientists.
“At this time, nothing related to NASA indicates a national security threat,” agency spokesperson Bethany Stevens wrote. “The agency is committed to transparency and will provide more information as able.”
Representatives from Caltech, which manages JPL, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The sun had barely risen over the Pacific Ocean when a small motorboat carrying a team of Indigenous artisans and Mexican biologists dropped anchor in a rocky cove near Bahías de Huatulco.
Mauro Habacuc Avendaño Luis, one of the craftsmen, was the first to wade to shore. With an agility belying his age, he struck out over the boulders exposed by low tide. Crouching on a slippery ledge pounded by surf, he reached inside a crevice between two rocks. There, lodged among the urchins, was a snail with a knobby gray shell the size of a walnut. The sight might not dazzle tourists who travel here to see humpback whales, but for Mr. Avendaño, 85, these drab little mollusks represent a way of life.
Marine snails in the genus Plicopurpura are sacred to the Mixtec people of Pinotepa de Don Luis, a small town in southwestern Oaxaca. Men like Mr. Avendaño have been sustainably “milking” them for radiant purple dye for at least 1,500 years. The color suffuses Mixtec textiles and spiritual beliefs. Called tixinda, it symbolizes fertility and death, as well as mythic ties between lunar cycles, women and the sea.
The future of these traditions — and the fate of the snails — are uncertain. The mollusks are subject to intense poaching pressure despite federal protections intended to protect them. Fishermen break them (and the other mollusks they eat) open and sell the meat to local restaurants. Tourists who comb the beaches pluck snails off the rocks and toss them aside.
A severe earthquake in 2020 thrust formerly submerged parts of their habitat above sea level, fatally tossing other mollusks in the snail’s food web to the air, and making once inaccessible places more available to poachers.
Decades ago, dense clusters of snails the size of doorknobs were easy to find, according to Mr. Avendaño. “Full of snails,” he said, sweeping a calloused, violet-stained hand across the coves. Now, most of the snails he finds are small, just over an inch, and yield only a few milliliters of dye.
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