For example, the Lucas-Lehmer test works only for Mersenne numbers, while Pépin's test can be
applied to Fermat numbers only.
If unpredictability is not required, such as for simulation, a Mersenne Twister will provide numbers with good
statistical properties at a much higher rate.
This would be the
modern equivalent of the French mathematician Marin Mersenne in the 17th century,
whose wide range of contacts(from Hobbes to Pascal to Descartes to Galileo), allowed to him act, as Peter Lynch puts it, like“a one-man internet hub” for the emerging scientific revolution.