The big story today: A new study from the University of Liverpool found that birth control pills could be messing with women's ability to find genetically dissimilar partners, thereby upping the chances of infertility, miscarriage, and offspring with weakened immune systems. The key issue, according to Craig Roberts, an evolutionary psychologist who led the study, is body odor:
Humans choose partners through their body odor and tend to be attracted to those with a dissimilar genetic make-up to themselves, maintaining genetic diversity. Genes in the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC), which helps build the proteins involved in the body's immune response, also play a prominent role in odor through interaction with skin bacteria. In this way these genes also help determine which individuals find us attractive.
The pill has been shown to affect the sense of smell in the past, and while the exact reason for this side effect isn't known, ...
