Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.

J-P. That's Y-A-K-U-L-T dot CO.J-P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

This is Scientific American's 60 Second Science. I'm Christopher in Taliatta.

Remember Crystal Pepsi.

It debuted in the early 90s to a soundtrack of Van Halen.

But if you're blanking, don't feel bad, because Crystal Pepsi disappeared just a few years after it debuted.

But presumably, the soft drink had some fans,

and previous research found that people who buy products destined to fail, like Crystal Pepsi,

also buy other duds. So every time we looked, you know, these people were doing things that

were different than their neighboring zip codes. Duncan Semester is an economist at MIT. He and his colleagues call these people

harbingers of failure because they tend to buy products that flop. Now they find that those harbingers

tend to cluster in the same zip codes. They made the discovery by tracking the purchasing

habits of customers at a mass merchandise chain, think Walmart or Target. And they found that

certain customers kept

buying products most other people didn't want. In a follow-up experiment, they found that those

people also tended to purchase more unpopular niche items at a clothing retailer. But it goes further.

Those same people bought homes that appreciated less than other homes. And what's more,

they were more likely to support

political candidates who lost, all of which indicates that these people, who based on zip codes,

...