Another good one from Sandra Tsing Loh:

Cinna-Paper
Hold onto your sandwiches--this really IS the greatest thing since sliced bread!

This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science

and with a flavorful new way to pack your lunch.

Fresh bread is great--if only it would STAY fresh. Instead, it goes bad after a few days, and eventually you've got The Creature That Ate My Brain growing in your breadbox.

The culprit is rhyzopusstolonifer fungus--a-k-a, mold.

But researchers at Spain's University of Zaragosa have found a way keep Wonder bread from sporting a not-so-Wonderful green, furry look.

Their solution? A kind of wax paper containing cinnamaldehyde -- an antimicrobial chemical distilled from cinnamon bark. Cinnamaldehyde can kill all kinds of organisms, from mosquito larvae to MOLD. Plus, the cinna-paper packaging is medically safe and environmentally friendly.

When the scientists wrapped bread in wax paper containing six percent cinnamon oil--which is nearly all cinnamaldehyde--it kept bread mold-free for up to ten days.

By contrast, wrapped in Grandma's plain ol' wax paper, bread became a carnival of mold in just three days.

Of course, my brilliant South Dakotan mother-in-law Bernice FREEZES her bread but research scientists. . . didn't ask her! Ah well. Next time.