Science

A team of behavioral scientists has been studying low-cost, easy interventions — text message reminders, how an envelope looks — to improve efficiency and access to federal programs.

The New Yorker's Kathryn Schulz has a theory for what's behind the use of the phrase "No, totally" as a way to agree with someone. She points to an English word that we've lost: "Nay."

Research on fruit flies with different types of insomnia has revealed the same brain pathways that interfere with sleep in people. The result may be better sleeping pills that don't leave you groggy.

Winners included Michael Smith who created a pain scale for bee bites. The award for literature went to two colleagues for discovering that the word "huh" is used in languages around the world.

  

SciWorks Radio is a production of 88.5 WFDD and SciWorks, the Science Center and Environmental Park of Forsyth County, located in Winston-Salem. Follow Shawn on Twitter @SCIFitz.

Dinosaurs dominated the earth for more than 130 million years until 65 million years ago. As a kid, not quite so long ago, I made my mom read the same dinosaur book, over and over. The one with a Godzilla-like T. Rex and the now-defunct brontosaurus. And they were all the color of elephants. It's mind-blowing what we've learned since then. I now know that my favorite book showed some of the last of the non-bird dinosaurs. Many of these were found in the North American northwest, which  has changed a bit since.