These pseudo-random numbers suffice for low stakes uses like gaming, but for scientific simulations or cybersecurity, truly random numbers are important. In recent years scientists have turned to the ...

If it hadn’t been for a shortfall in the supply of random numbers, one of history’s most infamous spy rings might never have been exposed. The shortage occurred in late 1941, two years after the start ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about physics, science, academia, and pop culture. As someone whose primary claim to fame is writing physics books ...

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics was handed out to people for pulling off what Marvel writers only pretend to understand: showing that quantum weirdness isn’t confined to subatomic particles. They ...

In September 2013, whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that American and British intelligence agencies had successfully cracked much of the online encryption internet users used to keep their ...

Random numbers are used in several important technologies including cryptography and numerical simulation. However, large sequences of truly random numbers are notoriously difficult to generate – and ...

For centuries, the West has sought to decode the universe with the rigour of Euclid and the certainty of Christ. But every so often, reality throws up a figure so fundamentally resistant to analysis, ...

Most of us are familiar with the concept of a random walk — a classic example is provided by a pollen particle suspended in water. But what if we replace the pollen with a quantum system, to produce a ...