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. That's y-A-K-U-Lt.C-O.jp. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

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

The Maldives form a constellation of almost 1,200 coral reef islands in the Indian Ocean.

They have stunning white sand beaches surrounded by emerald blue water,

and according to a new study, they may owe their existence to parrot fish,

more specifically to parrot fish poop.

If you've ever snorkeled near a coral reef, you've probably seen neon-colored parrotfish.

Their name refers to their sharp beak-like teeth. You may have heard them, too.

That's a parrotfish literally eating the reef's coral skeleton.

It bites off tiny pieces of hard coral as it forages for algae. That gets taken into the fish.

It's then milled and it passes through their intestines and it's then excreted out the back end as clouds of sediment.

Chris Perry, a marine geoscientist at the University of Exeter

in the UK. And that is then distributed onto the reef and is a way, at least in this system and

elsewhere where parrotfish are abundant, that you can convert coral substrate into sediment-grade

material. In 2013, Perry and colleagues went to the Maldives to find out how the reef, which

grows underwater, generate sediments that pile up forming islands that rise above the water's

surface. The team discovered that parrotfish play a critical role in this process.

Their waste accounts for a whopping 85% of all the sand produced on the reef.

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