Exercising self-control is contagious: Within a person's brain, that is. The study hasn't made it out yet, so we're stuck with a press release on this one, but it's too good to pass up. The finding itself isn't a huge shock: if people are asked to avoid using the toilet, their exercise in self-control makes them less likely to make other impulsive decisions, and take a larger reward that requires a bit of waiting. So, if you want to avoid acting impulsively, hold it in. That's a bit odd on its own, but the motivation for the study is superb. One of the authors of the study, Mirjam Tuk, felt like she was going to doze off at an upcoming seminar, and chugged some coffee to avoid this fate. That may have kept her awake, but the urge to eliminate that coffee apparently distracted her enough to come up with the idea for the new work.

Maybe they're just sad because they know they throw like a girl: The second half of this title sounds like standard behavioral science: "Emotion affects sex-decoding of biological motion displays." It's the first bit—"He throws like a girl (but only when he’s sad)"—that sends this paper into Weird Science territory. The authors indicate that gender stereotypes seem to be inferred from a person's emotional state, but it's difficult to display a person's emotional state without revealing gender information. So, they chose a "biological motion display," namely how a person threw a ball. Male and female actors were filmed throwing baseballs in anger and sadness, and then had their gender hidden by video editing. Test subjects rated the videos, and generally felt that angry throwing motions were masculine.

Who's in charge, here?: Given the resources they devote to producing eggs, evolution selects for females that have some control over the males they choose to mate with. But scientists have found a species where the female has complete control. They can tell, because a pair of the now-extinct mites were caught in the act and preserved in amber. The female of this species "specialized structures assisting male-female attachment" and a structure that allowed it to hang on to males. Current males of related species have appendages that let them grab onto females, but these are absent in the sample trapped in amber. Still, the female mites may have a substantial say in who they mate with. "Some lineages have developed female copulatory tubes that function like a penis," said one of the mite experts involved in the work.

Education makes you mellow: I think it's safe to say that many of us with PhDs find the post-graduate life rather stressful, and the same probably applies to MDs, JDs, and MBAs, who tend to find themselves working long hours in high-stress positions. But it seems that something about graduate education is protective, since those with over 17 years of education had lower blood pressure readings than people who hadn't gone past high school. The effect is a bit larger in women.

Next up for the nanoparitcle revolution? Hair dye: Although it represents a multibillion dollar industry with international reach, according to an overview in Chemical Reviews, hair coloring remains trapped in the '50s. The 1850s, that is, when the chemical that serves as the basis of the process was first identified. The review is comprehensive, covering everything from the structure of the hair to the physical chemistry of the dying process, reaching over 20,000 words in the process. If you ever thought hair coloring was all about vanity, you might be shocked to see how much science is involved.

Something's not right with the males of Finland: There were two things I hadn't realized prior to looking into this paper: 1) rates of testicular cancer and quality of semen tend to trend in opposite directions; 2) Finland has generally been considered a nation with high semen quality. Alas, the country's glory days might be behind it. Sperm quality is dropping and the rates of testicular cancer are going up. In this, the Finns are joining most of Western Europe and the Americas. We're not sure why this is happening, but the rapid rate of change suggests it's an environmental or lifestyle issue.

There may be a fungus out there just waiting to turn you into a zombie (provided you're an ant): A little while back, a bit of fossilized plant matter indicated that zombie-generating fungi have been around for millions of years. Now, we find that they've used that time to diversify. Researchers checked four species of Brazilian ants, and found a fungus for each of them. Once infected, the fungus takes over the ant's brain and forces them to crawl to the underside of leaves and latch on, so that the fungus' spores can spread far and wide. (The fossil plant leaves showed bitemarks caused by ants grabbing hold.) Thankfully, so far, this seems limited to ants.

This paper scores a lot of Weird Science bonus points for it's title (which starts with "Hidden Diversity Behind the Zombie-Ant Fungus"). Extra points for the authors calling the paper "a test case for the electronic publication of new names in mycology," and for making me aware of the fact that fungus species have their own registry, called Index Fungorum.

Good news for the night owls: A study population of nearly 70,000 nurses shows that working the night shift reduces the chance of getting melanoma. The bad news? Working the night shift has previously been associated with increased risk of other types of cancer.