[SC.LUG] Primes With Complex Factors

[Frank Mitchell]

When Gauss discovered Complex Numbers he found he could use them to factorise 
Primes. For instance 2 can be factorised as (1+i)*(1-i). Only half the Primes 
can be factorised like this, but there are Hypercomplex Numbers, like 
Quaternions, which can be used to carry the process further.

Recently this topic seems to have attracted further research, and it seems to 
me this could be connected with Cryptography and its use of enormous Primes. 
Apparently the People's Republic of China are getting expert at cracking 
apparently uncrackable ciphers. Does anybody know more about this?

Faictz Ce Que Vouldras: Frank Mitchell