  Let n and k be natural numbers and let S(n,k) denote the Stirling numbers of
the second kind. It is a conjecture of Wilf that the alternating sum
\sum_{j=0}^{n} (-1)^{j} S(n,j) is nonzero for all n>2. We prove this conjecture
for all n not congruent to 2 and not congruent to 2944838 modulo 3145728 and
discuss applications of this result to graph theory, multiplicative partition
functions, and the irrationality of p-adic series.
