“Hansel and Gretel got lost in the forest. It was so dark and also so bitterly cold. They came to a little house of gingerbread fine...” – at this point, it becomes rather clear that the story is fictional; a house made of gingerbread is very evidently a figment of the Grimm brothers’ imagination.

If we were, for a second, to think that a gingerbread house was to exist in our reality and face the wrath of European weather, some research by Göttingen University suggests that this house would’ve been insulated with popcorn – just as sweet, but water-repellent, heat-insulating and fireproof. Serious competition for EPS and mineral wool!

Imagination aside, an insulation manufacturer in Germany is actually planning to start production of building insulation materials made of popcorn. One can only hope that these products would come with appropriate labels, to prevent people from having a mouthful!