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Science 11 June 2004:
Vol. 304. no. 5677, p. 1592
DOI: 10.1126/science.304.5677.1592c
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Prime number hunters have bagged yet another record-holder. On 28 May, a collaboration of about 75,000 number enthusiasts around the world announced the discovery of a 7-million-digit prime, the largest yet found of this breed of numbers that are divisible only by themselves and 1.

The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) is a loose collaboration of devotees who use surplus computer power to search for Mersenne primes, which have the form 2p - 1. The latest discovery, 224,036,583 - 1, is the 41st such prime and the seventh found by GIMPS since it was founded in 1996.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digitally oriented civil liberties group, has offered a $100,000 prize to the discoverer of a 10-million-digit prime. Prime hunters now appear to be within striking distance of the pot of gold. The last new Mersenne, found in 2003, was 6 million digits long.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)