The team traced the software to Blosser's workstation at the company's offices on Mineral Avenue in Littleton. A prime number can only be divided by itself or 1. Jim Meiss, a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Colorado in Boulder, said the search for new prime numbers has always been a favorite game of mathematicians. It's just one of those really beautiful things,'' he said. It's a pattern in nature.
People believe a lot of patterns exist out there.
The problem is there is no formula for finding prime numbers. You have to test each number,'' he said. Marin Mersenne was a French monk who in 1644 wrote in a treatise on physics and mathematics that there were only 11 prime numbers. Blosser showed agents how he remotely installed NT Prime software on computers throughout the US West system. He then reprogrammed the computers from his workstation and instructed them to run his search for a new prime.