I'm a physicist.
I thought of making fun of her, too, but I managed to resist that. It's too easy if you're educated AND have the credentials to "back it up" to ridicule people who aren't (initially at least) articulating their case well. I've had occasion to talk to some very well-recognized people in my search for help for my son in this field and related ones, usually over the phone rather than in person - it's amazing how accessible these people are -- and I have consistently found them to be humble, unassuming and genuinely responsive to my (sometimes perhaps ignorant-sounding) thoughts and theories. The people to whom I'm referring include (if memory serves -- some of this dates back to 24 years ago) Konrad Lorenz, Bernard Rimland, and Temple Grandin. I'm not touting that as a substitute for credentials; I just wanted to talk to the best in their fields. Lorenz is a recognized authority and has written on bonding and aggression (in geese); Rimland is one of the original researchers in autism growing out of his role as an autistic parent (he traces his son's autism to over-oxygenation at birth causing brain injury from rebound vasoconstriction) (I was the first person who ever made the Pitocin connection for him, and later he had the British Lancet 6/91 article in his newsletter), now head of the group Autism Research Institute and (I think) Defeat Autism Now; Temple Grandin is a famous autistic, inventor and author (she responded to my Pitocin theory with the story about the acquired autism from a dune buggy injury) I remain convinced that I am the first person to ever put Pitocin and autism together, and Dr. Pangsepp, who has been proving out the oxytocin aspect of autism, works with Dr. Rimland. We were co-speakers with Dr. Pangsepp for Sensory Integration International in San Diego in June of 1995; we were just speaking as parents and only incidentally learned, over coffee in the break room, about his research before he gave his talk. We were flooded with inquiries after the session where we spoke; the most memorable one was a female OB doctor who practiced at the same hospital where our first son was born and was flabbergasted at the idea that Pitocin might be doing the level of harm we were seeing in our fourth son and did not want to believe it; she must have been a remarkable doctor, bottom line, to have even been in attendance at a sensory integration conference.
Are you finding your background in physics applicable to things you are reading relative to autism and microbiology? There is a tremendous application there, I'm sure. (See my posting to the person who was ridiculing the concept of fluoride problems; as you know, they're in the same vertical column on the Table of the Elements, and natural health people have given a lot of attention to the displacement of iodine in the body by fluoride added to our water.) The role of mercury in autism, causative or opportunistic, should intrigue you.