There had to be a connection between two of the best things in the world…

“Princeton physicist Paul Chaikin’s passion for M&M candies was so well known that his students played a sweet practical joke on him by leaving a 55-gallon drum of the candies in his office. Little did they know that their prank would lead to a physics breakthrough….

“A series of studies have shown [that oblate spheres like M&Ms] pack more tightly than perfect spheres — something that surprises many physicists and Chaikin himself.”