A well-known effect in breakfast cereal helps physicists understand the universe

A well-known effect in breakfast cereal helps physicists understand the universe: Kusrolli and Berhanu found that when you throw just a handful of Cheerios into a bowl of milk they aggregate into hexagonal groups, but when you have many particles dispersed over a larger area -- such as pollen floating across a lake -- the particles gather into condensed areas with large gaps of empty space between the groups. While the driving force is different, Berhanu said this same effect can also be seen in the cosmos. Large clusters of galaxies and stars cling closely to each other while leaving vast amounts of empty space between them.

"If you look at the distributions of stars and galaxies, it's not random," said Kudrolli.