RANDOMNESS IS A valuable commodity. Computer models of complex systems ranging from the weather to the stockmarket are voracious consumers of random numbers. Cryptography, too, relies heavily on ...

There will be an app for that: making random numbers on a mobile phone. (Courtesy: Marketa Michalkova) Do you feel nervous when you make a credit-card transaction using your mobile phone? Your worries ...

Using a single, chip-scale laser, scientists have managed to generate streams of completely random numbers at about 100 times the speed of the fastest random-numbers generator systems that are ...

Think of a random number between one and ten. Most likely, you chose seven—so exactly how random was your choice? Turns out that generating a truly random number is more difficult than you might think ...

Eeny, meeny, miny, mo, catch a tiger by the toe – so the rhyme goes. But even children know that counting-out rhymes like this are no help at making a truly random choice. Perhaps you remember when ...

Random numbers are useful beasts, in particular for cryptographers who use them to generate their codes. But how best to make random numbers at useful speeds? The question is intimately linked to the ...

Randomness can be a Good Thing. If your system generates truly random numbers, it can avoid and withstand network packet collisions just one of many applications. Here's what you need to know about ...

Random numbers are increasingly important to our digitally connected world, with applications that include e-commerce, cryptography, and cloud computing. Producing a large amount of truly random ...

Using the inherent quantum flickering of empty space, researchers have figured out how to generate random numbers at an unprecedented rate. The record-breaking method could be used to enhance ...