My wife and I wrote the following for a
poetry contest by Science News. It didn't win, so I posted it on
my web page.
If computers that you build are quantum,
Then spies of all factions will want 'em.
Our codes will all fail,
And they'll read our email,
Till we've crypto that's quantum, and daunt 'em.
Jennifer and Peter Shor
When he introduced me at the
1998 International Congress
of Mathematicians,
Prof. Volker Strassen recited my limerick, and added a reply:
To read our E-mail, how mean
of the spies and their quantum machine;
Be comforted though,
they do not yet know
how to factorize twelve or fifteen.
Volker
Strassen