A prime number is a whole number that can only be divided by 1 and itself. A former Nvidia programmer discovered the world's largest known prime number using graphics processing units.

A prime number is a whole number that can only be divided by 1 and itself. A former Nvidia programmer discovered the world's largest known prime number using graphics processing units.

Two mathematicians have found a strange pattern in prime numbers — showing that the numbers are not distributed as randomly as theorists often assume.

This conjecture in number theory is intimately related to the distribution of primes. In 2001 the Clay Institute in the USA offered a prize of a million dollars for a proof of the Riemann hypothesis.

The largest known prime number has been discovered, smashing the previous record by more than 16 million digits.