Scientific American.Com: First Proof that Infinitely Many Prime Numbers Come in Pairs

[Thinking Skins]

This is news that only a mathematician could appreciate.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=first-proof-that-infinite-many-prime-numbers-come-in-pairs

It’s a result only a mathematician could love. Researchers hoping to get ‘2’ as the answer for a long-sought proof involving pairs of prime numbers are celebrating the fact that a mathematician has wrestled the value down from infinity to 70 million.

“That’s only [a factor of] 35 million away” from the target, quips Dan Goldston, an analytic number theorist at San Jose State University in California who was not involved in the work. “Every step down is a step towards the ultimate answer.”

Link for rest

[Old Bay]

Yeah, I think so, because I don't know what I just read. I'll stick with history.

[FanboyOf91]

and the fact that the work seems to use standard mathematical techniques led some to question whether Zhang could really have succeeded where others failed.

Probably won't help proving the twin primes conjecture. But a nice result, nonetheless.

[gbear]

Just a thought, but doesn't this have some importance when it comes to code breaking?

[Dan T.]

"and the fact that the work seems to use standard mathematical techniques led some to question whether Zhang could really have succeeded where others failed."

Probably won't help proving the twin primes conjecture. But a nice result, nonetheless.

I'm 80 percent sure that Zhang succeeded. But my other 30 percent has doubts.