'Prime numbers' discovery upends thousands of years of accepted beliefs and could disrupt encryption methods

 

Numbers rarely make headlines, yet a fresh claim about prime numbers is stirring excitement well beyond math circles. Primes are those stubborn figures that resist division. For thousands of years, their locations have seemed as unpredictable as meteor showers.

Now comes a bold assertion: primes are not as random as we thought. If that statement holds, it rewrites a story mathematicians have told since the ancient Greeks. It also challenges the security systems that shield our bank transactions and private messages.

Understanding prime numbers
Every whole number on your calculator can be built from primes. Need 15? Multiply 3 and 5. Need 323? Break it into 17 × 19. Yet no one has found a simple shortcut that lists every prime in order without missing one or adding impostors.

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