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Published on: E

1914

Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan arrives in London. Hardy and Littlewood immediately direct him to the intractability of prime numbers and demand rigorous proofs, as has been the Western tradition since the time of Gauss. But this goes against Ramanujan’s nature. One can only speculate on what this young man might have achieved had he not been caged by the Western fear of prime numbers.