Noting the buzz generated when more than 10 times the usual number of readers downloaded the cover article in the September Communications of the ACM, New York Times science and technology reporter John Markoff highlights the allure of the P vs. NP challenge. He reports that if this “grand challenge” for theoretical computer science and complexity theory is proven, some of the hardest computing challenges may collapse, leading to a burst of new economic and technological productivity.  

If this proof comes to pass, Communications Editor in Chief Moshe Vardi predicts, computer scientists may have to start learning a very difficult mathematical field known as algebraic geometry, which offers some hope for proving or disproving the problem.

Read the New York Times article (login may be required).

Read the CACM article.