This guy loves prime numbers. And now, so do I.

If you read one math article this year -- and there's still time -- check out the New Scientist Q&A profile on Marcus du Sautoy. It's primal, if you know what I mean.

New Scientist

Excerpt:

Q. What is a prime number? And a zeta function?

A. Primes are the atoms of arithmetic, numbers divisible only by themselves and one: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 and so on. The mystery lies in that tiny phrase "and so on" because mathematicians don't know how to predict when the next prime will appear. It is one of the greatest teases of our subject. Mathematics is about the search for patterns, yet is built from a set of seemingly random numbers. In the middle of the 19th century, Bernhard Riemann came up with a new way to look at the primes. Using something he called a zeta function he found a mysterious pattern where others had found only disorder.

Q. Should we be teaching prime numbers to five-year-olds?
A. Why not? I went along to our local primary school and did a presentation about prime numbers. I bounced it off something they are interested in: football. When David Beckham went to Real Madrid he chose the shirt number 23, a prime number. So I said OK, why did he choose 23? And we went through some things about prime numbers: that they are building blocks, and Beckham is a building block, and the Chinese consider them macho numbers because you can't break them down into factors. The children loved it. It can be done. I suppose that is what writing The Music of the Primes was about - trying to play people a bit .../blockquote>