Simon Singh Quote

It requires a great deal of time, effort and money to create a random key. The best random keys are created by harnessing natural physical processes, such as radioactivity, which is known to exhibit truly random behavior. The cryptographer could place a lump of radioactive material on a bench, and detect its emissions with a Geiger counter. Sometimes the emissions follow each other in rapid succession, sometimes there are long delays—the time between emissions is unpredictable and random. The cryptographer could then connect a display to the Geiger counter, which rapidly cycles through the alphabet at a fixed rate, but which freezes momentarily as soon as an emission is detected.

Simon Singh

It requires a great deal of time, effort and money to create a random key. The best random keys are created by harnessing natural physical processes, such as radioactivity, which is known to exhibit truly random behavior. The cryptographer could place a lump of radioactive material on a bench, and detect its emissions with a Geiger counter. Sometimes the emissions follow each other in rapid succession, sometimes there are long delays—the time between emissions is unpredictable and random. The cryptographer could then connect a display to the Geiger counter, which rapidly cycles through the alphabet at a fixed rate, but which freezes momentarily as soon as an emission is detected.

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About Simon Singh

Simon Lehna Singh, (born 19 September 1964) is a British popular science author, theoretical and particle physicist. His written works include Fermat's Last Theorem (in the United States titled Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem), The Code Book (about cryptography and its history), Big Bang (about the Big Bang theory and the origins of the universe), Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial (about complementary and alternative medicine, co-written by Edzard Ernst) and The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets (about mathematical ideas and theorems hidden in episodes of The Simpsons and Futurama). In 2012 Singh founded the Good Thinking Society, through which he created the website "Parallel" to help students learn mathematics.
Singh has also produced documentaries and works for television to accompany his books, is a trustee of the National Museum of Science and Industry, a patron of Humanists UK, founder of the Good Thinking Society, and co-founder of the Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme.