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The 23 Toughest Math Questions
coondoggie sends in a Network World post that begins "It sounds like a math phobic's worst nightmare or perhaps Good Will Hunting for the ages. Those wacky folks at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have put out a research request it calls Mathematical Challenges, that has the mighty goal of 'dramatically revolutionizing mathematics and thereby strengthening DoD's scientific and technological capabilities.' The challenges are in fact 23 questions that, if answered, would offer a high potential for major mathematical breakthroughs, DARPA said." Some of the questions overlap with the Millennium Prize Problems of the Clay Mathematics Institute, which each carry a $1M prize.
Speaking as one who trained as a cryptologic technician interpretative (Mandarin Chinese) in the US Navy, I'd say the NSA has a lot to do with the DoD. So much of the NSA's manpower consists of active-duty soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen. NSA facilities are located at army and navy bases worldwide.
Apparently, according to Google this is a pretty dang hard question to answer:
Yep, google breaks!
So the DoD just leaked that they already know the solution to that one. Interesting.