1. The lecture was primarily on Prime Numbers. There wasn't anything TOO new in the lecture. He talked mostly about the mystery behind some patterns contained within prime numbers and then focused the remainder of the time on the RSA cryptosystem. One thing that is hard for me to fathom is how simple prime numbers are, yet how hard the research on them is. For instance, why is it so hard to find the next prime number? Isn't it just the next non-crossed off number using the Eratosthenese Sieve? Or why is it so hard to explain why factoring large numbers is hard. I know it's hard, but why is it hard to explain?
2. Something rather interesting about the presentation was contained in one sentence the presenter used: "Prime numbers are like atoms." He was saying that every number that isn't prime can be broken down into its key component numbers that ARE prime. I had never thought about prime numbers like this, but now that's pointed out, I like the comparison.
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