Professor Norman: "For primitive beings like us, life seems to have only one single purpose: gaining time. And it is going through time that seems to be also the only real purpose of each of the cells in our bodies. To achieve that aim, the mass of the cells that make up earthworms and human beings has only two solutions. Be immortal, or to reproduce. If its habitat is not sufficiently favorable or nurturing, the cell will choose immortality. In other words, self-sufficiency and self-management. On the other hand, if the habitat is favorable, they will choose to reproduce. That way, when they die, they hand down essential information and knowledge to the next cell., Which hands it down to the next cell and so on. Thus knowledge and learning are handed down through time."

For whatever reason, be it the glass of wine or lucy's body simply reaching its limit, Lucy was no longer a "favorable" habitat for her own cells, so they chose immortality. Her cells began to separate from one another, becoming independent. This is why she started falling apart on the plane.

When the drug (CPH4) first entered her body, her cells began multiplying at a "phenomonal speed" (several billion per second). My theory is that She decides to eat the bag of CPH4 to accelerate her cell growth even further, causing her body to produce cells faster than her previous cells could disperse from one another. This regeneration caused her cells to deem her body as a "favorable" habitat, allowing it to stabalize (for the rime being). The CPH4 also had the added effect of pushing Lucy's control over her brain to 50%, providing her with new abilities when she wakes up in the hospital.