Having one child with autism raises the odds of having a second child with the disorder 20-fold, according to one of the largest epidemiological studies so far to address the inheritance of autism risk.

New algorithms can analyze recordings of infants performing tasks that gauge their attention, suggesting a way to automate the detection of autism symptoms.

Lorna Wing, who died in June, was the modest, kind and thoughtful mother of a daughter with severe autism. She was also a towering figure in the history of autism research, and her contributions to our understanding of autism cannot be overestimated.

With the rate of autism now at 1 in 68 people and climbing, the need for solutions that reach the risk population more quickly and effectively has never been more real, say Dennis Wall and Glenn Saxe.

The number of people in a study, the proportion of male and female participants, and many other factors can affect research on sex differences in autism, says Thomas Frazier.

Two autism screens are better than one at identifying toddlers who need specialized clinical services.

The growing prevalence of autism is no different from that of other neurodevelopmental disorders, finds a study of more than 4.5 million people in four countries.

Chris Gunter and Daniel MacArthur discuss guidelines for assessing the evidence that a genetic variant causes autism or another disorder.

People with autism tend to carry mutations that duplicate or delete several genes at once, according to a large study published 1 May in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

A new policy that aims to eliminate gender bias in animal and cell-based biomedical research is outlined in the 15 May Nature.