Back in 1995, M&M fans were asked to choose the candy's new color: pink, purple or blue. The electorate voted for blue, and it was apparently a wise choice. Researchers recently found that the blue food dye used in M&Ms (and other products such as Gatorade) might help treat spinal injuries. It worked on injured lab rats, who were able to walk again (and turned blue!) after an injection of the "Brilliant Blue G" compound. While any human treatment is likely years away, there's one group that's already benefiting from the discovery: the marketing folks at Mars. "Blue M&Ms" was the No. 1 trending topic Tuesday evening on Twitter as thousands of users shared the weird story. And really, this karma's been a long time coming for Mars, which once voluntarily shelved the red M&M for nine years due to a consumer freak-out over a red dye that the product didn't even use. With this latest news, it doesn't seem so weird after all that the Blue M&M wants to just sit around licking himself.

—Posted by David Griner