Heidelberg Laureate Forum
Mersenne Primes, GPUs, and a Number With 41 Million Digits
In October 2024, mankind found a new prime number, which was also the largest prime number, featuring a gargantuan 41,024,320 digits. The number was special for another reason: It was discovered through a GPU-driven workflow. But why does finding this number matter? Weiterlesen
Heidelberg Laureate Forum
The Internet Chronicles – Part 9 of 12: RSA and Prime Numbers
The internet still needed a way for anyone to send a secret message to anyone else without first agreeing on a shared secret. It needed a way to sign digital documents and prove identity; a lock that could be made public without giving away the key. That lock was RSA. Weiterlesen
Heidelberg Laureate Forum
The Collaboration Paradox
Paul Erdős is undisputedly the most prolific mathematician to ever have lived. He published over 1500 papers while he was alive, and worked with over 500 collaborators. It is perhaps the number of collaborators which stands out even more so than the number of papers published.
Though it may seem paradoxical, most people have fewer collaborators than their own collaborators do on average. This is known as the “friendship” paradox and is normally framed as your friends having, on average, more friends than you. Weiterlesen
Heidelberg Laureate Forum
Hyperschall: Numerische Strömungsmechanik auf Abwegen
Es ist schon eine ganze Weile her, da wollte die europäische Raumfahrtagentur ESA ein eigenes „Space Shuttle“ bauen: einen Flugkörper, der mit einer Rakete in die Erdumlaufbahn geschossen wird und im Gleitflug zurückkehrt, so dass …
Heidelberg Laureate Forum
The Mathematician’s Essay: An Old Format for a New AI Era
At a time in which AI is revolutionizing the practice of mathematics – in some areas overtaking human capabilities – mathematicians are turning to the old-fashioned essay to express their thoughts on where humans could and should fit into the equation. Weiterlesen
Heidelberg Laureate Forum
Hyperspectral Imaging and Responsible AI
In the latest HLFF Spotlight, we meet Jimoh Abdulganiyu, a computer scientist and Graduate Research Assistant working at the Utah Water Research Laboratory, where he uses hyperspectral imaging to analyze vegetation affected by dust brought about by the erosion of the Great Salt Lake. Weiterlesen
Heidelberg Laureate Forum
In the Pursuit of Perfect
There are a set of numbers that seem intrinsic to the world, so linked to other important sequences, that they seem to hold an almost spiritual significance. These numbers are those whose proper divisors (i.e. all the positive divisors excluding itself) sum to the original number. These are the aptly named Perfect Numbers. Weiterlesen
Heidelberg Laureate Forum
Happy (Belated) 2026
It is customary in January to write a blog post containing mathematical facts about the year. For us maths writers, 2025 truly was a gift, and you can see just why in Katie’s excellent post last year. But the chances of having two consecutive years with so many fun facts are, as one might expect, small. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there is a dearth of interesting facts about 2026.
But do not fear! This is not going to be a list of anti-facts, of things that are not true about the number 2026. There is one fact that is so fun that I think it might blow all the 2025 facts out the water. Weiterlesen
Heidelberg Laureate Forum
IoT Is Changing Agriculture. But the Reality of the Cyber-Farm is Still Messy
Some 10,000 years ago, Neolithic cultures started transitioning from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a more sedentary, farming lifestyle. This was an agricultural revolution, or rather, the first Agricultural Revolution. The second one started in the …
Heidelberg Laureate Forum
But What Do You MEAN?
If you ask someone their favourite number, most people will have an answer. It might be the date of their wedding, it could be a number with pleasing symmetry (I have always liked 8), or cultural significance. Very few people, however, will have a favourite average, and most would be slightly baffled at the question.
So, I am on a mission. I want to make sure that not only does everybody have a favourite average, but also that everyone knows about the deep ecosystem of different means, and how they relate to one another. Weiterlesen
