The first few primes are 2, 3, 5, 7 and 11, becoming more sporadic higher in the number line. Torquato and his colleagues have found that that, when considered over large swaths of the number line, ...

For instance, the largest known prime number, which is 2 136279841 − 1, is 41,024,320 digits long. At first, that number may seem mind-bogglingly large.

Pick any large set of random data you like. Look at the first digit of all the numbers. You're going to see a lot of ones. It's not just a coincidence.

Mathematicians are stunned by the discovery that prime numbers are pickier than previously thought. The find suggests number theorists need to be a little more careful when exploring the vast ...