French scientists discover law that predicts how most objects shatter

French scientist Emmanuel Villermaux of Aix-Marseille University has formulated a universal law that predicts how most objects shatter, providing a unified framework applicable to a wide range of materials including brittle solids, liquid drops, and exploding bubbles. His approach combines the principle of maximal randomness—where nature tends toward the messiest, most irregular fragmentation—with a conservation law discovered by his team that constrains the overall balance of fragment sizes. This invisible framework ensures that despite the apparent chaos of shattering, the distribution of fragment sizes follows predictable physical limits. Villermaux’s model mathematically predicts universal fragment size patterns that align closely with decades of experimental data. He validated the theory through experiments such as crushing sugar cubes, accurately forecasting fragment distributions based on the object’s shape. While the law effectively describes random, chaotic breakage like glass shattering, it is less accurate for very soft materials that deform rather than fragment, or highly ordered breakage processes such as water splitting into uniform droplets. These exceptions highlight that although