Men surpass women in IQ stakes

In a paper to appear in the British Journal of Psychology in November, Paul Irwing and Richard Lynn said men's IQs are on average five points higher than those of women.

This, the two professors argue, is why men -- who also have larger brains -- are more likely to win Nobel prizes and other major academic distinctions.

Looked at from a population perspective, it meant there were three men to each woman with an IQ above 130, and 5.5 men for each woman with an IQ above 145.

"These different proportions of men and women with high IQ scores are clearly worth speaking of," Irwing told the Times Higher Education Supplement in a preview of their research.