A basic feature of number theory, prime numbers are also a fundamental building block of computer science, from hashtables to cryptography.

Luke Durant, a researcher and amateur mathematician, has identified the largest new prime number known to humankind. The newly discovered prime number is 2 to the power of 136,279,841, then minus one.

The largest known prime number has been discovered, smashing the previous record by more than 16 million digits.

A prime number is a whole number that can only be divided by 1 and itself. A former Nvidia programmer discovered the world's largest known prime number using graphics processing units.