Student Finds Largest Known Prime Number
I remember when I saw my company's first IBM mainframe, a 370 model 155. It had the most glorious control panel ever seen! We could sit and stare at all the lights blinking and numbers rapidly shifting and was deeply impressed by technology's progress. And it was fast, real fast. At least in those days it was. But we knew it was only calculating, although we actually could produce something meaningful from those calulations.
This story about the student who, with a little help from his friends, found the largest prime number ever, reminded me of those days. I will admit that I don't understand the scientific signicance of the discovery. But wasn't this why computers originally was invented? To crunch numbers? So is it a big deal or not?
Read the story in BBC News!
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