Marin Mersenne: 17th century facilitator

摘要

MARIN MERSENNE was born 425 years ago on 8 September 1588, near Oize, France. He is probably best known for his formula to generate prime numbers based on what we now call Mersenne numbers. And you may have come across the Mersenne Twister, a random number generator named for him and used in simulating complex biochemical pathways, genome coalescence and cellular biology. Mersenne also played a big role in publicising and disseminating the work of some of the greatest thinkers of his age before the advent of scientific journals.