The Largest Known Prime by Year: A Brief History

I don't want to rain on anyone's math geek parade, but is there a practical use for discovering primes?<p>Is there any use beyond crunching giant numbers for theoretical physics and knowing a certain number can't be divided - or is this just the math geek equivalent of knowing the Baltimore Orioles had four 20-game winners in 1971?

<p><pre><code> &#62; ...this record, which stood for 75 years, MAY stand &#62; forever as the largest prime found by hand calculations. </code></pre> I shudder to imagine the holocaust which would have to happen before this record could be broken. Though I suppose we may find an alien species who might have found a larger prime "by hand."

We haven't seen a prime larger than M43112609 since 2008. What gives?<p>This page claims to have been last updated 21 April 2012, <a href="http://primes.utm.edu/largest.html" rel="nofollow">http://primes.utm.edu/largest.html</a>

I wonder how long it would take running the prime number shitting bear to discover a new prime...? <a href="http://alpha61.com/primenumbershittingbear/" rel="nofollow">http://alpha61.com/primenumbershittingbear/</a>

WolframAlpha: <a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=largest+known+prime" rel="nofollow">http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=largest+known+prime</a>

See also <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_known_prime_number" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_known_prime_number</a>