In this episode of Tiny Show and Tell Us, we talk about breathing in birds — how it takes two breath cycles for air to leave their bodies, and while it travels within their bodies, it's stored in various sacks, some of which are in their butts. Then we discuss how food waste contributes to approximately 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions every year, and what we can do to reduce it. 

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3,500 years ago, cats started showing up in Egyptian paintings on tomb walls and in sculptures and carvings. Not only were they abundant in these representations, but it was very clear that they were domestic. They had collars around their necks and were eating out of food dishes underneath the dining room table. That scene is not so different from the life many cats lead today. So how did cats go from the wild to being immortalized on tomb wall paintings and lounging on living room couches? And just how domestic is a domestic cat?

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In this episode of Tiny Show and Tell Us, we tackle the debate surrounding whether or not it rains diamonds on Saturn. Then we talk about how UV degradation can break down some of the harmful residual dyes from plastic pollution, and what it means in the context of microplastics.

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On May 7, 1981, influential physicist Richard Feynman gave a keynote speech at Caltech. Feynman opened his talk by politely rejecting the very notion of a keynote speech, instead saying that he had his own ideas on what to discuss and that everyone should speak on what they please. And for Feynman, this meant proposing a new technology that could simulate physics with computers. That lecture 44 years ago is widely considered to have kicked off the field of quantum computing. In today’s episode we dive into the world of quantum computing — its big challenges and exciting potential applications such as decoding tough-to-crack encrypted messages or discovering new drugs. 

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In this episode of Tiny Show and Tell Us, we cover squirrel pox — a disease that hasn’t had a huge impact in the United States but has decimated populations of squirrels in the UK. Then we talk about the story that Napoleon's army lost the Battle of Waterloo because the military uniforms used tin buttons that broke apart in cold temperatures, making it harder for the troops to survive. But is there any truth to that story?

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In January, 1997, David Nierenberg was a physician at Dartmouth‐Hitchcock Medical Center, specializing in toxicology. Chemist Karen Wetterhahn was placed in his care. When she arrived at the hospital, Karen was slurring her speech and having difficulty balancing and with coordination. What David soon learned was that her symptoms were all due to a few tiny drops of a compound called dimethylmercury. Today’s episode focuses on two lab accidents that had a profound impact on research communities, and that inspired changes that have likely saved the lives of scientists and other workers since. The first story is that of Karen Wetterhahn who, in the 1990s was a professor of chemistry at Dartmouth College whose lab focused on heavy metal toxicity. The other story is about fatal prion protein exposures in France that led to a temporary moratorium in 2021. 

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In this episode of Tiny Show and Tell Us, we talk about how climate change may impact the effectiveness of mental health medications and how heat waves impact mental health more generally. Then we cover how fetal heart rates can change depending on which language they’re hearing while in the womb.

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Climate change has brought forth extreme fire events, like the Palisade and Eaton fires in Los Angeles, which devastated communities in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades in the beginning of 2025. And it’s becoming harder to not wonder: Is this just the world we live in now? Under the constant threat of catastrophic fires? Fortunately, we have the perfect guests to answer that question. We traveled to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and spoke with two of their scientists who study fires from space.

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In this episode of Tiny Show and Tell Us, we talk about why the FDA recently banned Red Dye No. 3 and how concerned people should be about its use in food. Then we cover icy winter roads and the fascinating science behind clearing them and taking a more sustainable approach that won’t hurt the environment.

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In 1975, NASA launched two spacecraft to Mars. Viking 1 and Viking 2 arrived at their destination less than a year later, each bringing a lander to explore the surface of the planet and an orbiter to survey above. What was supposed to be a 90 day mission ended up lasting until the early 1980s. Those years provided scientists with important data about the Martian landscape, from seismometer readings of marsquakes to the reddish color of the sky.

But the Viking missions had another important task: they were going to look for possible signs of life. The Viking experiments would go on to become an important landmark in science, one that’s helped researchers in a number of fields figure out what we can be doing better to find signs of life beyond Earth.

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