Dunkin’ Donuts has developed a program that will help make your office coffee runs a little easier; plus, an Israeli scientist is saying coffee might help your breath smell better.

Every office worker knows this feeling. You’re sitting at your desk thinking about running out to get a cup of coffee. You don’t want to be rude and not offer pick up some for your fellow cubical dwellers, but the hassle of getting everyone’s order right makes you scurry covertly out the door before Little Miss “Where Ya Goin’?” in the cube next to you can even look up.

Well, Dunkin’ Donuts is hoping to put an end to that problem. The donut chain launched a site on Monday called DunkinRun.com. You can download it to your iPhone or just use it the old fashioned way on your computer. DunkinRun allows you to alert your friends and coworkers that you’re heading out to Dunkin’ Donuts, lets them know what time you’re leaving, and collects their orders.

Your friends (who are now seeing you with the utmost adoration for your generosity and cleverness) then click through Dunkin’s menu and pick out what they want. You then get an email from Dunkin’s with all your friend’s orders. You print out the order, or upload it your iPhone ‘cause you’re cool like that, and take it with you to Dunkin’s. After that, you just hand the order to the cashier and let them do the work.

So what do you think? Does this sound like something you’d use or does it sound like a hassle? Is it a great way to take the pressure out of an office-place coffee run or is it just lazy?

Personally, I think DunkinRun sounds a whole lot like what most people do when trying to avoid the office coffee dilemma: duck and run.

Got a dirty mouth? Don’t blame it on coffee

Researchers at Tel Aviv University are saying that, contrary to popular belief, coffee might actually help prevent bad breath instead of encourage it.

Professor Mel Rosenburg, a biochemist who specializes in research on odors, presented findings that coffee extract can inhibit the growth of bacteria that causes bad breath at a meeting of the International Society for Breath Odor Research (no, I did not make that up) in Germany last month.

“Everybody thinks that coffee causes bad breath,” says Rosenberg, “and it’s often true, because coffee, which has a dehydrating effect in the mouth, becomes potent when mixed with milk and can ferment into smelly substances.”

Rosenburg’s team studied bacterial odor production when coffee is introduced to human saliva. Testing three different brands of coffee, Rosenburg expected to demonstrate the way coffee puts off a mal-odorous effect in the human mouth.

“The lesson we learned here is one of humility,” Rosenberg said of the study’s findings. “We expected that coffee would cause bad breath, but there is something inside this magic brew that has the opposite effect.”

The team is now attempting to isolate the bacteria-fighting molecule that keeps coffee from causing bad breath. Its antibacterial properties could lead to an entirely new class of mouthwashes, gums, and mints.

Until then, try drinking it black on your next date or job interview.

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