The contraceptive pill changes a woman’s choice in men, a British study suggests.

Scientists believe that taking the Pill changes the way a woman reacts to a man’s smell.

A man’s aroma can give a clue to his type of genes and ability to fight disease, although it is complicated by factors such as soap and aftershave.

Women subconsciously react to a man’s smell to pinpoint a partner with dissimilar genes to themselves. But taking the Pill could disrupt this natural ability, study at the University of Liverpool published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences said. One consequence could be that they are more attracted to partners with whom it will be harder to conceive if they want children.

Disturbing a woman’s instinctive attraction to genetically different men could result in difficulties when trying to conceive, an increased risk of miscarriage, and long intervals between pregnancies.

Passing on a lack of diverse genes to children could also weaken their immune system. It is important to have a mixed immune system to combat diseases.

The research team analyzed how the Pill affects odor preferences. One hundred women were asked to indicate their preferences on six male body odor samples, drawn from 97 volunteer samples, before and after starting to take the Pill. They found that the Pill made women more likely to be attracted to a man with a similar immune makeup.

Dementia Study Makes ‘Crucial’ Advance

A common form of dementia has been artificially reproduced for the first time, in a move experts have hailed as a “crucial breakthrough” in understanding the disease.

The development allows scientists the first opportunity to map the onset of the disease, similar to Alzheimer’s, and track how drugs affect it.

They hope that the research will allow them to develop treatments to halt the onset of the disease.

Known as dementia with Lewy bodies, the condition is the second most common form of dementia.

As well as memory loss, the disease causes symptoms including hallucinations and tremors. There is no known cure. By creating the same damage to the brain in mice, the scientists, led by a professor at the University of Nottingham, John Mayer, hope to improve on the current treatments for the disease, which target only its symptoms and do nothing to tackle its causes.

While previous genetically engineered mouse models have recreated proteins thought to damage the brain, Mr. Mayer and his team are the first to also reproduce the nerve cell death, another symptom of dementia with Lewy bodies, which scientists believe could be one cause of the condition.

Brittle Bone Disease Drug May Slow Cancer

A drug developed to prevent brittle bone disease could dramatically slow the growth of breast cancer tumors, research suggests.

When combined with chemotherapy medication, the drug was able to almost halt the progression of the disease in mice, scientists found.

They hope that the drugs will have the same effect on humans and have begun to test them in clinical trials.

With the drug costing less than $500 per year, if the human trials prove successful, it could be far more cost effective than existing breast cancer drugs such as Herceptin, which is 20 times the price.

The drug, zoledronic acid, is already used to help prevent the development of osteoporosis, or brittle bone disease.