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 Yachtold, visit yawcult.co.com.j, that's Y-A-K-U-L-T.

dot-C-O-J-P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on YacL.

This is Scientific American 60-second science. I'm Cynthia Graber. Got a minute?

Here's a good news, bad news story. Scientists have been able to dramatically increase the yields for oil palm trees, a crop with the global market.

Oil palms grow in the tropics, so that should mean more profit from less land, helping to protect tropical forests. Good news, right?

But in an article in the journal

Science, researchers show how the increased yield could in fact lead to even more tropical

destruction, because as the value of palm oil planting increases, farmers could want to plant

on even greater tracts of land, which is bad news. Also, a future increase in supply could

eventually lead to a decrease in prices, so palm oil

could outcompete, say, rapeseed oil from Canada, which would lead to an even higher demand for palm

oil, which is worse news. In addition, current low yields and high production costs means oil palm

is not planted much in Africa and South America, but higher yields could make oil palm attractive

to planters in those

regions leading to even more tropical forest destruction. To prevent these developments,

the researchers write that policymakers need to be aware of and plan for it the unintended

negative consequences of technical advances, which would be good news.

Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American 60 Second Science, I'm Cynthia Graber.