Meng-Chuan Lai is a neuroscientist/psychiatrist at the Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge. This talk will first introduce the evolving definitions and concepts of autism (or 'autism spectrum disorders/conditions'), then discuss two (out of many) issues that we have learned, and are still learning from autism: how humans interact with each other (the 'social brain' hypothesis), and the strength of individuals on the spectrum (the 'autism and talent' hypothesis).