The real significance of the hypothesis lies in its consequences, and particularly in what it says about prime numbers.
He once relayed a story about how he set up an encryption puzzle based on the manipulation of prime numbers.
These days most of these codes involve numbers, prime numbers in particular.
Those 1, 679 zeros and ones carried hidden meaning for any intelligent species who noticed that 1, 679 is the product of two prime numbers, 73 and 23.
Today, in addition to writing a book on prime numbers, he oversees a private 13.5-foot-tall ramp open to him and about three dozen others in Seattle.
On May 6th, 1949 EDSAC (or Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) ran its first programs, calculating a table of squares and generating a list of prime numbers.
Other researchers suggest that the best way to get an alien's attention is to send it a significant numeric pattern, perhaps prime numbers or the value of Pi.
Arran has said he would like to solve the Riemann hypothesis - a theory about the patterns of prime numbers which has baffled the greatest mathematicians for 150 years.
Against all precedent under the Fifth Republic, the prime minister's poll numbers have climbed as the president's have tumbled.
"We are confident of numbers, " Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday, indicating that the government had the backing of enough MPs to win should a parliamentary vote be held.
He admitted making mistakes when trying to persuade the prime minister to boost troop numbers in Helmand province and said he was "very disappointed" PM Gordon Brown refused to increase the level to 9, 800.
Among the millions of names and numbers online are prime minister Harold McMillan at his cottage in Chelwood Gate, composer Edward Elgar at his estate in Warwickshire and writer Evelyn Waugh at the home in the West Country where he wrote Brideshead Revisited.
Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy also attacked the prime minister over the fall in police numbers, which he blamed on New Labour's decision to stick to Tory spending limits for its first two years of office.
During exchanges in the Commons, Mr Hague's attack on Labour's record on police numbers received short shrift from the prime minister.
"It takes time to explain a new post, " the prime minister said, and he predicted voting numbers would be "much higher next time round".
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So the obvious way to find out whether a number is prime is to try dividing it by all numbers which are smaller than its square root.
The unemployment numbers will be a blow for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government, which was last year forecasting a jobless rate of 24.6% by the end of 2012.
Israelis have been voting in large numbers in a general election in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to be returned to office.
BBC: Israel election: High turnout as Netanyahu eyes victory
Pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids are just now testing the waters in limited numbers and are yet to be ready for prime time.
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Among the changes: The Spelling Bee, which premiered to strong numbers this summer, will makes its way to prime time on Wednesday nights.
The prime minister said police chiefs took the decision to increase officer numbers and change tactics, and the Cobra meeting helped commanders "by showing there was political backing for the changes they wanted to make".
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But this is less a consequence of special advisers' higher numbers than of their changed role: Alastair Campbell, the prime minister's spokesman, has unprecedented powers to boss civil servants around.
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Worried about the rising numbers of foreign prostitutes on the streets, Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, last year raised the possibility of bringing back licensed brothels, which were common in Italy until they were banned in 1958.
Mr Brown's government had been seeking to increase the numbers of homes being built in recent years, but the prime minister admitted that "we failed over many years to build enough houses to meet the need that was there".
It is only the 41st known Mersenne prime, named after Marin Mersenne , a 17th Century French monk who first studied the rare numbers 300 years ago.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Largest Prime Number discovered
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