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The opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics is two short days away. As over 10,000 athletes gather in Paris, France, anticipation builds. But that anticipation is not just for the next 19 days of fierce competition, it’s also for the Seine. The Seine River is set to host events including the 10 kilometer marathon swim and the triathlon, but as the Games approached, much of the testing showed that the Seine was still teeming with dangerous levels of E. coli and other bacteria. And a lot of people are asking, "why is this river so dirty?" In today’s episode, we’re going to get into the interesting history of how people have dealt with sewage, from Mesopotamia times to today, and how the Seine, as well as a river Sam knows well — the Potomac — are trying to clean up their acts. We'll dive into questions like, 'Will it ever be legal to swim in the Potomac?' 'Did Thomas Crapper actually invent the cra... um, toilet?' 'How do you clean up dilapidated old mines that are poisoning a river?' and more.

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In this episode of Tiny Show and Tell Us, we cover a recent story about how spending time outdoors can help keep kids from becoming nearsighted and the mysterious absence of skeletons at the site of the Battle of Waterloo despite over 10,000 soldiers dying (and how the beet sugar industry may have played a gruesome role).

Here's a link to purchase 'Bones of contention: the industrial exploitation of human bones in the modern age' by Bernard Wilkin and Robin Schäfer.

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This summer is a sports fan’s dream! Beyond some major soccer tournaments, Paris 2024 kicks off at the end of July. If you think about it, sports are science in motion, which means that buried in incredible athletic feats is a lot of data about how athlete bodies are using and responding to chemistry, biology and physics. That data is helping scientists design new or better tools for athletes.

Today, in honor of this very sporty summer, Sam and Deboki delve into how scientists go about developing the equipment that helps move athletes, and how that equipment is holding importance for the medical field as well, for instance in diagnosing cystic fibrosis in infants. Sam and Deboki will also cover the creative experiments one scientist did to design a better bike saddle for female pro cyclists, who endured decades of intense injuries that ultimately required many to undergo labiaplasties, until American racing cyclist Alison Tetrick came along and said “enough is enough.” Title IX may have revolutionized female sports participation, but until more recently building gender-specific sports equipment from the ground up was unheard of.

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Links to the Tiny Show & Tell stories are here and here. Curious as to why mosquitoes might be obsessed with you? Check out this video! Pick up a Tiny Matters mug here! All Tiny Matters transcripts are available here.