The Institute for Learning in Retirement will host a lecture about prime numbers today at the Holmes Student Center’s Lincoln Room.

Richard Blecksmith, a professor in the department of mathematical sciences, will speak at the event. Blecksmith said the purpose of the event is to examine the idea of galaxies, the concentration of prime numbers and other interesting ideas.

“Strong computational evidence indicates that galaxies of prime exist where numbers are very, very, large – that is numbers with billions and billions of digits,” Blecksmith said.

Topics covered will include easy-to-solve problems from grade school, what exactly primes are, why primes are plentiful and more.

Bleckmith encourages students to attend because he would like to convince them that math is not just boring or tedious.

“People are fascinated by the notion of infinity, chaos and fractals,” Blecksmith said. “I want to add prime numbers to a list of interesting math stuff.”

The original lecture scheduled was titled Iraq: Images in Realities, but was postponed until next week. Anne Petty, program coordinator for external programming, said that event has been postponed until April 2 and will focus on the entire Middle East.