Are prime numbers special? Insights from the life sciences

Prime numbers have been attracting the interest of scientists since the first formulation of Euclid’s theorem in 300 B.C. Nowadays, physicists and mathematicians continue to formulate new theorems about prime numbers, trying to comprehensively explain their articulated properties. However, evidence from biology and experimental psychology suggest that prime numbers possess distinctive natural properties that pre-exist human grasping. The present work aims at reviewing the existing literature on prime numbers in the life sciences, including some recent experimental contributions employing newly hatched domestic chicks as animal model to test for spontaneous mechanisms allowing discrimination of primes from non-primes. Our overarching goal is that of discussing some instances of prime numbers in nature, with particular reference to their peculiar, non-mathematical, perceptual properties.