Breaking a 330-year-old code

By PHILIP EIL | October 18, 2012

As I chatted with him afterward, Mason-Brown was greeted enthusiastically by a man with grey hair who gushed, "That was wonderful, I'm glad I came." "I will see you soon . . . Thursday," Mason-Brown responded. Turning back to me, he identified the man as math professor Michael Rosen — his thesis advisor. His thesis in mathematics will focus on a topic in number theory called "elliptic curves," Mason-Brown said. Decoding the 330-old cipher of Roger Williams was just an independent study.

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Topics: This Just In , Brown University, code, John Carter Brown Library

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