ARTICLE: Mathematicians are geeking out about a bizarre discovery in prime numbers

[Ryan Goble]

From QZ.com...

Prime numbers have both fascinated and boggled mathematicians for millennia. But a new study contends that one aspect of prime numbers’ core usefulness—the ability to appear random—may not be what we suspected it to be.

Despite having a simple definition, a whole number that cannot be exactly divided by any other number than 1 or itself, prime numbers display many levels of complexity. They don’t, for instance, show a discernible pattern, and thus appear random. It is this uniqueness that is used to encrypt important information swapped over the open internet. For instance, every time you make an online purchase with a credit card, prime numbers spring into action to complete that transaction for you securely.

Researchers studying prime numbers at Stanford University have stumbled upon a new phenomenon. In their study, published on arXiv, they show that consecutive prime numbers try hard not to be similar.That is, they may not be as random as once thought.

Full article HERE.