A basic feature of number theory, prime numbers are also a fundamental building block of computer science, from hashtables to cryptography.

Many of us have our lucky numbers. Then there’s Pomona College, where a veritable cult has developed around the uncanny incidence of the number 47, with believers -- some with tongue planted ...

A collaborative computer project has discovered the largest known prime number. The new prime number is nearly one million digits larger than the previous record prime number, in a special class ...

A group of mathematicians at the University of Central Missouri have just discovered a new prime number, and at more than 22 million digits, it’s the longest one yet. People have been hunting ...

A new prime number has been discovered that is more than 16 million digits larger than the largest prime number ever found. The number is 2^136279841-1, which is 41,024,320 decimal digits and ...

Two mathematicians have found a strange pattern in prime numbers—showing that the numbers are not distributed as randomly as theorists often assume. “Every single person we’ve told this ends ...