Caption for photo: 
Paul Chaikin (left), professor of physics, and Salvatore Torquato, 
professor of chemistry, used M&M's candies to reveal fundamental 
principles governing the random packing of particles. For at least 
a decade, Chaikin has kept this supply of peanut M&M's in his 
office for snacks; the scientists used regular M&M's in their studies. 

Caption for the detail photo: 
Princeton scientists used this 5-liter vessel holding 
7,500 M&M's chocolate candies to study the random packing 
of oblate spheroids, which differ from perfect spheres 
in ways that scientists had not previously understood.

Paul Michael Chaikin
Henry DeWolf Smyth Professor of Physics

Salvatore Torquato
Professor of Chemistry and Princeton Materials Institute

Princeton University
Princeton NJ USA

photo: Denise Applewhite (2004)