Do hunky men make women smarter?

It's not just the muscles, or the confidence, or the chiselled cheekbones. Nor is it the flashy sportscar or the charming arrogance. No, the charms of the alpha male -- the guy who stands out above lesser mortals -- may actually help women become smarter.

A scientific team at the University of Calgary's Hotchkiss Brain Institute has discovered that female mice exposed to the pheromones of dominant males generate new brain cells. And those brain cells help them find other dominant males, a process that boosts the survival of any offspring.