The world's largest prime, a Mersenne Prime, has been discovered.
The method of discovery was through a collaborative, distributive
effort, called the "Great Internet Prime Search."
There is a very nice editorial on the discovery, "What's It Do? Nothing, but Mathematicians Relish the Quest" by Fernando Q. Gouvêa, Mathematician at Colby College.
Or you can goole the news to find a host of related news stories.