Incidentally, ophthalmologist Dr. Martin Nowak from Michelfeld near Schwäbisch Hall set a mathematical record on February 18, 2005: The 47-year-old doctor discovered the largest known prime number to date, with exactly 7,816,230 digits.
A standard computer completed the task. This computer is part of the worldwide Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) network based in Orlando, Florida, in which tens of thousands of computers search for prime numbers.
The computer in the basement of Nowak’s eye center discovered the 42nd Mersenne prime number on February 18 after a computing time of 50 days – while Nowak was sleeping, treating patients, or cycling. The computer usually only controls an information display for patients, calculating prime numbers in the background. The idea behind the GIMPS project is to use free computing capacity to solve complex problems.
Nowak was enthusiastic about the idea, which he learned about in 1999. He first began calculating prime numbers with a computer; today, there are 24. At first, he was completely oblivious to his historic discovery. It wasn’t until an email from Orlando alerted him to his success. “At first, I didn’t even know which screen to look at,” Nowak recalls. After installing the small, free program, he barely paid any attention to it: “I didn’t really follow it.”
Nowak describes himself as an amateur mathematician. “I have a basic understanding of numbers, and I’m interested in their application in technical drawing.” Advanced mathematics, including calculus and mathematical proofs, however, aren’t his thing. He much prefers cycling across Europe or playing the piano.
No one knows whether there actually are other Mersenne numbers. Prime numbers go back to the French monk Marin Mersenne (1588-1648). They have the formula (2 to the power of n) – 1.
Nowak’s newly discovered Mersenne number has over half a million more digits than the previous prime number record. Written on graph paper, it forms a strip 39 kilometers long.
Martin also participated in the doctors’ piano courses.