There was recently a thread on Twitter started by Claire Ryan who tweeted: “When is giving a child an award at school, not an award at all?” – along with this excerpt about an autistic boy called Jack. Jack reported being anxious recently in assembly as school were giving out awards. He would sit thinking […]
via Autism: When Awards Can Be A Negative Thing… — Inside The Rainbow
that Bloody Cat 
I’m currently reading NeuroTribes by Steve Silberman (if you haven’t read it I recommend it, I’m only 25 pages in but it’s amazing!), and there is an interesting account about a man called Cavendish from the 1700s who is quite clearly autistic. It states he was the first person to discover a lot of amazing things. He discovered argon, he was the first person to describe the flow of electrical current, he discovered that water is made out of hydrogen and oxygen and more.
However, he was not comfortable doing press releases and avoided competition and controversy, keeping his discoveries to himself and a small group of colleagues.
Therefore, he is not known for any of these discoveries, as other scientists were more keen on press releases and becoming known for things, even though they were discovered by Cavendish much earlier, and I think that fits in perfectly with this post!