Discovered: corporations like sustainability too, salt's better side, when autism develops, more parents on Facebook, and a serious focus group.

  • This week, your salt intake isn't so bad for you. Eating too much salt isn't particularly good for you, as the FDA and Mayor Bloomberg keep reminding us. But the question of "well, just how bad is it?" takes the debate into a gray area, one that a new meta-analysis led by a Denmark-based researcher has an answer for: "I can't really see, if you look at the total evidence, that there is any reason to believe there is a net benefit of decreasing sodium intake in the general population," he told Reuters, which pointed out that his study is calling on governments to "re-evaluate policies advising everyone to eat less salt." [Reuters]
  • Autism may develop before birth, be distinguished by more brain cells. These are the findings of a new case study on autism, according to CNN: 1) Autistic children tend to have more brain cells: "Having too many neurons or nerve cells in the part of the brain that controls the very features that children with autism struggle with may explain the origin of autism." 2) It may develop before birth: "since the excess neurons were found in a part of the brain that develops before a child is born, it points to a prenatal problem playing a role in autism." Both findings, the news outlet notes, mostly confirm previous research. [CNN]

Read the full story at The Atlantic Wire.