Results from the latest round, factoring a record-setting 167-digit number, may help simplify some mathematical theorems and help scientists develop secret codes for computer security. "The fact that ...

What are the prime factors, or multipliers, for the number 15? Most grade school students know the answer -- 3 and 5 -- by memory. A larger number, such as 91, may take some pen and paper. An even ...

Amateur mathematicians are closing in on an unimaginably huge number – one so large that it brushes up on the edge of what is even knowable within the framework of modern mathematics. It all stems ...

Quantum computers could one day threaten the safety of the internet by breaking encryption – and now they are a step closer. A quantum computing start-up company called Zapata has worked with IBM to ...

Prime numbers are all the rage these days. I can tell something’s up when random people start asking me about the randomness of primes—without even knowing that I’m a mathematician! In the past couple ...

Researchers report that they have designed and built a quantum computer from five atoms in an ion trap. The computer uses laser pulses to carry out Shor's algorithm on each atom, to correctly factor ...