Prime number the 1970s, mathematicians and physicists have speculated that the zeros of the Riemann zeta function are connected to the energy levels of quantum systems. Prime numbers are also significant in quantum information science, thanks to mathematical structures such as mutually unbiased bases and symmetric informationally complete positive-operator-valued measures. The evolutionary strategy used by cicadas of the genus "Magicicada" makes use of prime numbers. These insects spend most of their lives as grubs underground. They only pupate and then emerge from their burrows after 7, 13 or 17 years, at which point they fly about, breed, and then die after a
Prime number arts and literature. They have also been used in evolutionary biology to explain the life cycles of cicadas. Fermat primes are primes of the form with formula_64 a natural number. They are named after Pierre de Fermat, who conjectured that all such numbers are prime. The first five of these numbers – 3, 5, 17, 257, and 65,537 – are prime, but formula_236 is composite and so are all other Fermat numbers that have been verified as of 2017. A regular formula_1-gon is constructible using straightedge and compass if and only if the odd prime factors of formula_1 (if any)