Geeks Are Studs

For decades, computer geeks - the pocket-protector crowd -- have been considered the bottom feeders in the dating ocean. (We're talking about men, here, not the female techies.) But guys take heart. Technologists just actually may be more attractive to women than their rivals in other occupations.

That's (sort of) the conclusion that researchers in England came to after studying the genetics of European humans who lived about 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. The theory, laid out in an article published in the journal Plos Biology , argues that farmers from the Near East, who had developed advanced farming tools, spread westward into Europe and by sheer technological prowess, changed the shape of the genetic pool. Armed with the latest farming technology, these men could grow large quantities of crops, providing food for more people as compared to simple hunting and gathering techniques that the Europeans used. The women liked that. The researchers found that the genes from these male farming geeks spread throughout Europe via the indigenous women.

So it seems that the women in the European hunter gatherer societies ditched their spear-throwing mates in favor of farmers bearing cool stone gadgets. "It appears the men moved in on a population of women and outcompeted the men who where there already," National Public Radio recently reported about the study. "So, assuming these scientists are reading the genes right, technology really can make a guy more attractive."