The Hello,

welcome to the naked scientists with me Dominic Ford and also with Hannah Quickslow. Hello, and this week how anorexia and autism might be linked.

The spacecraft which is mapping out the structure of our galaxy

and the flashes of radiation from space that could tell us what

happens when stars collide. If you like get in touch email Chris at the

naked scientist.com tweet at naked scientists or you can find

us on Facebook. The naked scientist podcast is powered by UKfast dot co-dot UK Fast. I'll be talking to the astronomers who call themselves

Astro archaeologists as they try to find out where the stars of our galaxy came from.

But first it's trying to take a look at what's been making the science headlines

this week.

Hannah, a study has found a link between anorexia and autism.

So this is a study that's been published by a group of Cambridge researchers based at the

autism research center.

Simon Baron Cohen, who's director and professor of that unit,

has been looking at anorexia, which actually affects one in ten people in the UK so it's the food disorder where people might

starve themselves and it can actually in 30% of cases lead to death because of

clinical conditions that may for example cause organ failure. So very little is known about

the biological basis of anorexia, but Simon was interested in some of the facets of anorexia, so this compulsion to

control what you're eating and also to really kind of control and regime different

aspects of your life and he thought that might be similar to autism which is a typically very male

syndrome so he analyzed 66 adolescent girls aged between 12 and 18 who had been

diagnosed with anorexia but without a diagnosis of autism and he looked at

...