4.2 • 639 Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2015
⏱️ 2 minutes
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0:00.0 | Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in. |
0:05.8 | Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years. |
0:11.0 | Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program. |
0:19.6 | To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co. |
0:22.7 | J-P. That's Y-A-K-U-L-T.C-O.J-P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacol. |
0:33.4 | This is Scientific American 60 Second Science. I'm Christopher Ndalata. Got a minute? |
0:39.5 | Body odor. The smell of B.O. is unmistakable. |
0:43.3 | And the culprit behind that signature stench is a molecule called thio alcohol. |
0:47.8 | Our noses are so attuned to it, we can pick up quantities as small as one part per trillion. |
0:53.0 | But here's the mystery. |
0:56.0 | How does that stinky substance get there in the first place? Well, it turns out bacteria named Staphylococcus hominis is the |
1:01.5 | major perpetrator, along with a few of its relatives. Their genes code for enzymes that |
1:06.8 | snip the molecules in our sweat to pieces, creating the offensive thio-alcohols, along with |
1:12.0 | bits of food for the bacteria. Because, hey, bacteria got to eat, too. When innocuous E. coli |
1:18.2 | bacteria were given the genes that our B.O. perpetrators have naturally, they, too, could achieve |
1:23.1 | the stank. These findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for General Microbiology |
1:28.2 | in Birmingham in the UK. Not surprisingly, this work was partially funded by Unilever, because now that |
1:34.6 | we've identified these microbial targets, the researchers say, it might be possible to design |
1:39.4 | more effective deodorants, which, instead of crippling all underarm bacteria, dispatch only the most dastardly |
1:46.4 | denizens. |
1:47.6 | Smells like profit to me. |
1:50.2 | Thanks for the minute. |
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