Here's a really fun one -- a cute study involving an honesty box for tea or coffee in a common room. Every week the researchers tacked up a new price list above the bax. The prices didn't change, but the picture at the top did. Faces or flowers -- and whatever the face, the eyes stared straight at you. And you know what happened? Although it was, after all, just a picture, people were nearly 3 times more likely to pay for their drink if the picture was of eyes rather than flowers! And in a psychology department too.

And to change the subject completely, the Guardian reports on a comprehensive new study that claims that there is no advantage in a single-sex education -- that the only reason that single-sex schools seem to do so well in league tables, is that they are generally independent schools with pupils from advantaged backgrounds.

ScienCentral has a report on a rather amusing study. Recent studies have shown how motherhood can actually alter the brain and improve learning and memory in rats -- even if they're just foster moms. That got the researcher wondering if anything happened to fathers. She found two rodent species who provided a useful comparison: California deer mice ("Mister-Moms" -- really great dads) and common deer mice ("deadbeat dads" -- who are terrified of littlies!). She found that father California deer mice were better foragers and explorers than non-dads, but that even the deadbeat dads showed changes in the "nurturing" hormones, oxytocin and vasopressin, when exposed to young mice (although precautions had to be taken to keep the young mice safe!).

And a study of 3-5 year olds (we're back with humans now!) has shed some light on stuttering. Apparently, those who stuttered were more emotionally aroused by everyday challenging events than non-stutterers, and took longer to settle down afterwards. They also were less able to control their attention. Moreover, the extent of arousal and the degree to which the child was able to regulate his emotions, apparently governed how bad the stuttering was.