Boffin brainteaser book bonanza

Physicus comp too easy? Then analyse this!

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Site News, 23rd October 2000 17:21 GMT

Free research: Application platforms, the state of play

Inspired by the impressive response to our Physicus competition, Reg Merchandising got straight on the blower to publisher Fourth Estate to secure 20 copies of The Code Book a bestseller and a very good read, to boot.

Aficionados of the Enigma code and other such pieces of linguistic skullduggery will doubtless enjoy Simon Singh's fine essay on ciphers in their many and glorious forms.

To win a copy, budding Alan Turings need simply to decipher the following text,encoded by our very own crypto-hackette, Lucy Sherriff:

qfoukwucpujlukfdsjfdoujoswubepswsbipnqnjqfou
ksdlnepsaipuoujosdqfzwuobsqubqsjfdnbbukobsqf
kfhjubskhflskcfjwnkofkwuyshsbnudbsbpomswshsk
sblfkyshfdswfkwuwubtndhsdfofdksdejuuducneskp
ofjhslsosjcukngujfujsdopsljfgpdsbukxlpqfipuk
popchnjopsdwfbskukljubbskobsqsdjuyfduksbseps
ejnkopsdwfbfkujsbukkpudsdqujfdnoskwusbmubnqf
oukwucpujlukfdsjfdoujoswubepswsbipnqnj

The rules are pretty simple. The answer must be in English and received by 5.00pm GMT on Friday 17th November. E-mail you entries to us
here.

The first 20 correct solutions out of the hat will get the goods. As an incentive, we'll send some Reg kit to the first correct answer we receive. Good luck as ever. ®

Free research: Application platforms, the state of play