When computer scientists hang out at cocktail parties, they're apt to chat, among other things, about the single most important unsolved problem in computer science: the question, Does P = NP?

Last week, HP Labs mathematician Vinay Deolalikar started circulating a startling paper that claims to have solved the preeminent open problem in computer science, known as P = NP. Er, more accurately ...

A new proof, published to the Web less than one week ago, purports to finally demonstrate that, in complexity theory, P != NP. As fast as the proof went up though, people found some potential issues ...