curve' graph, with most having near-average abilities, and relatively few being really smart or, for that matter, really thick.

Now here's the twist: let's accept that men and women really are equally smart on average; it's still possible for the spread of their abilities to be different, leading to different-looking bell curves for men and women. And if the bell curve for men tails off even a little less quickly than that for women, the result would be a far higher proportion of men at the extremes. Could that, asked Summers, explain their prevalence at the peaks of academia?

It was a theory too far for some of his audience. Within days, an all-female committee of Harvard academics condemned Summers for harming their efforts to recruit top women scholars, and the US National Organisation for Women demanded

Summers was replaced by Drew Gilpin Faust, the first female president in Harvard’s history

his resignation.

The controversy roared on for months. Finally, in February 2006, Summers bowed to the inevitable and quit. A caretaker president was installed, followed by the current incumbent: Drew Gilpin Faust, the first female president in Harvard's history.

But the real denouement of the tale is that story which appeared this week. It reports the results of a new study of more than 2,500 men and women by UK scientists - and they show that Summers was right all along: men really do have a greater spread of intellectual abilities than women.

Predictably, the headline-writers mangled the story, proclaiming, 'Men are smarter than women'. It should have read: 'There are more smart men than women'. Still, you can't expect any better from the tabloids - nor, it seems, from some elements in the most exalted groves of academe.