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.

.jp.j. That's y-A-K-U-L-T.C-O.jp. 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.

Concrete is one of the most widely used materials on the planet.

And this large consumption comes with a heavy ecological price.

Bruce Bay Shasavari, a material scientist at Rice University.

Around 5 to 10% of the total CO2 emissions comes from concrete production.

One way to reduce those emissions, he says, would be to increase the strength and

toughness of concrete, so you need less of it in construction.

But to make something stronger, you need to understand its weaknesses.

So Shasavari and his team studied the defects in a rock called tober morite.

The rock is an analog for wet cement, the main ingredient in concrete.

And they found that certain defects in the rock, they actually made the rock tougher if they

were aligned in a specific configuration.

Sounds counterintuitive.

Defects a good thing?

Defects are typically considered a bad feature of the material,

but when it comes to complex system like cement or concrete, it is not the case. It may be actually

an opportunity to introduce toughness and still, you know, makes something better out of it.

...