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.

Yachtold 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-L-T.C-O.J-P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacult.

This is Scientific Americans' 60 Second Science.

I'm Burley McCoy.

Mercury pollution from power plants and mining operations can end up in our air and water,

but it's tricky to predict just how much of that environmental mercury will make its way into our food and our bodies.

We were working on developing a bio-indicator, a biosentanyl, that could inform us of the levels

of mercury contamination across the U.S.

Ecologist Colin Eagle-Smith of the United States Geological Survey.

He and his colleagues came up with a practical way

to determine the scope of mercury contamination

in an ecosystem by measuring mercury levels in a single species.

Their bio-indicator, juvenile dragonflies, or larvae.

Dragonfly larvae stay underwater, don't move much,

are easy to collect and live long enough to accumulate

significant amounts of mercury. If you have enough locations sampled with dragonflies, you can

develop an index of the relative amount of mercury in the biological community. The team measured

mercury concentrations in thousands of dragonfly larvae collected from waterways in 100 national

parks during a 10-year period. And to amass the large sample number, they recruited volunteers

...