But then autism research took a badly wrong turn. - TIME MAGAZINE

I have just read this thread and I agree with everyone. Why then, Milum, one might rightfully ask, did you resurrect this sleeping thread when you have nothing new to say?

Well, if you must ask, I want to say the same things that you all said but I want to say them in my way, and my way is in italics. Like the Italians always say - a thought in italics slips into the mind like rosa, rosa, Thunderbird wine.
So here goes...

The term "Badly wrong turn" is semantically displeasing because it disrupts the smooth transfer of information from writer to reader and causes people like nancyk and me to do a double take. An adverb modifying an adjective that qualifies a noun in sequential alignment is abnormal syntax when the adjective root of the adverb (in this case "bad") is widely used in an almost cliched conjunction with both the adjective and the noun, i.e. bad wrong and bad turn.
So...
the editor at Time who let this insignificant little phrase slip by was, for that moment, merely a poor practitioner of the ever-changing editorial arts.

What?...So - I told you I didn't have anything new to say.
That does it! I'm outta here! I'm going back over to Wordplay and Fun where I'm better known and admired.
Geez! Please forgive me for breathing. Geez! -