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White bread, like vanilla, is one of those foods that's become a metaphor for blandness. But it wasn't always that way.

Aaron Bobrow-Strain, professor of food politics at Whitman College, tells Weekend Edition's Rachel Martin that white bread was a deeply contentious food — ever since the early 1900s' ideas of "racial purity" up to the cultural revolution of the 1960s. He documents that cultural legacy in his new book, White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf.

A few days ago, amid darkness and freezing winds, thousands of small packages of seeds were carried into an underground storage vault on a remote Arctic island. That vault holds a growing collection of seeds from all the different kinds of crops around the world that humans grow for food.

We're going to venture that just by nature of the fact that you're reading this blog, you count yourself as a member of the social mediarati.

If so, you, and a lot of other people, may sooner turn to Epicurious or Facebook to plan your next meal than your grandmother's recipe box or the Nestlé Toll House bag of chocolate chips in the cupboard. That's the word from the Hartman Group, a consumer research firm, and Publicis Consultants USA, a marketing agency.

Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli's quest to obtain records from a noted climate scientist has been halted by state's Supreme Court.

Kristin Chenoweth talks to Jacki Lyden on today's Weekends on All Things Considered, and if the only thing you got from the interview was Chenoweth warbling a bit of the first solo she ever did in church, it would be well worth it.

The Emmy-winning actress stars on ABC's new GCB, a sort of Desperate-Housewives-ish dishy, soapy comedy-drama premiering Sunday night at 10. She's come quite a long way since, as she explains, her father negotiated her first contract.

In Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson writes of how space exploration--especially human voyages--can profoundly inspire scientists and technologists of the future, and charts the path for missions to Mars and beyond.

Proteus Biomedical has developed chip-in-a-pill technology that transmits patient data directly to a smartphone. Novartis has partnered with Proteus to investigate applications of this technology. C&EN senior editor Rick Mullin discusses how the nontraditional partnership is part of a larger trend.

In his book The Hockey Stick And The Climate Wars, Michael Mann discusses what he calls a well-funded campaign to discredit climate change. He describes efforts by opponents with ties to the fossil fuel industry to harass climate scientists and create doubt about climate change.