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An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.


Physics Found Gravitational Waves. Now Come the Existential Questions
From ACM News

Physics Found Gravitational Waves. Now Come the Existential Questions

On September 14, 2015, at 3:50 AM Central time, a tiny vibration shuddered down the 2.5-mile-long arms of a massive machine in Livingston, Louisiana.

Cracking the Brain's Enigma Code
From ACM News

Cracking the Brain's Enigma Code

Brain-controlled prosthetic devices have the potential to dramatically improve the lives of people with limited mobility resulting from injury or disease.

The Robots Are Coming, and Sweden Is Fine
From ACM News

The Robots Are Coming, and Sweden Is Fine

From inside the control room carved into the rock more than half a mile underground, Mika Persson can see the robots on the march, supposedly coming for his job...

Blockchain Pumping New Life Into Old-School Companies Like IBM
From ACM News

Blockchain Pumping New Life Into Old-School Companies Like IBM

Blockchain is getting bigger at Big Blue.

Finalists in Nasa's Spacecraft Sweepstakes: A Drone on Titan, and a Comet-Chaser
From ACM News

Finalists in Nasa's Spacecraft Sweepstakes: A Drone on Titan, and a Comet-Chaser

Would you like NASA to fly a drone across Saturn's largest moon, or to send a probe to collect samples from a duck-shaped comet?

Can America's Power Grid Survive an Electromagnetic Attack? 
From ACM News

Can America's Power Grid Survive an Electromagnetic Attack? 

Last month, federal agencies and utility executives held GridEx IV, a biennial event where officials responsible for hundreds of local utilities game out scenarios...

How Facebook's Political ­nit Enables the Dark Art of Digital Propaganda
From ACM News

How Facebook's Political ­nit Enables the Dark Art of Digital Propaganda

Under fire for Facebook Inc.'s role as a platform for political propaganda, co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has punched back, saying his mission is above partisanship...

Researchers Fooled a Google AI Into Thinking a Rifle Was a Helicopter
From ACM News

Researchers Fooled a Google AI Into Thinking a Rifle Was a Helicopter

Tech giants love to tout how good their computers are at identifying what's depicted in a photograph.

Why Doesn't the N.f.l. ­se Tracking Technology For First-Down Calls?
From ACM Careers

Why Doesn't the N.f.l. ­se Tracking Technology For First-Down Calls?

It was a scene almost designed to show the folly of the N.F.L.'s first-down measurement system.

Crispr in 2018: Coming to a Human Near You
From ACM News

Crispr in 2018: Coming to a Human Near You

Ever since scientists first used CRISPR-Cas9 to edit living human cells in 2013, they've been saying that the possibilities for using it to treat disease are virtually...

'oumuamua Probably Isn't a Spaceship, But It Could Have Passengers
From ACM News

'oumuamua Probably Isn't a Spaceship, But It Could Have Passengers

Last Wednesday, at 3:45 pm, scientists from the Breakthrough Listen project trained the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia on 'Oumuamua—the mysterious, oblong...

Could Bitcoin Technology Help Science?
From ACM News

Could Bitcoin Technology Help Science?

The much-hyped technology behind Bitcoin, known as blockchain, has intoxicated investors around the world and is now making tentative inroads into science, spurred...

Artificial Intelligence, Nasa Data ­sed to Discover Eighth Planet Circling Distant Star
From ACM News

Artificial Intelligence, Nasa Data ­sed to Discover Eighth Planet Circling Distant Star

Our solar system now is tied for most number of planets around a single star, with the recent discovery of an eighth planet circling Kepler-90, a Sun-like star...

Stealth Turns 40: Looking Back at the First Flight of Have Blue
From ACM Careers

Stealth Turns 40: Looking Back at the First Flight of Have Blue

On December 1, 1977, a truly strange bird took flight for the first time in the skies over a desolate corner of Nevada.

The Evolution of Trust in a Digital Economy
From ACM News

The Evolution of Trust in a Digital Economy

To participate in today's global economy, ordinary people must accept an asymmetrical bargain: their lives are transparent to states, banks and corporations, whereas...

Sierras Lost Water Weight, Grew Taller During Drought
From ACM News

Sierras Lost Water Weight, Grew Taller During Drought

Loss of water from the rocks of California's Sierra Nevada caused the mountain range to rise nearly an inch (24 millimeters) in height during the drought years...

How the Loss of Net Neutrality Could Change the Internet
From ACM News

How the Loss of Net Neutrality Could Change the Internet

The repeal of net neutrality ushers in a new chapter of the internet that could eventually transform the way Americans communicate, shop and consume information...

Unprecedented Malware Targets Industrial Safety Systems in the Middle East
From ACM News

Unprecedented Malware Targets Industrial Safety Systems in the Middle East

Since Stuxnet first targeted and destroyed uranium enrichment centrifuges in Iran last decade, the cybersecurity world has waited for the next step in that digital...

Bright Areas on Ceres Suggest Geologic Activity
From ACM News

Bright Areas on Ceres Suggest Geologic Activity

If you could fly aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft, the surface of dwarf planet Ceres would generally look quite dark, but with notable exceptions.

Estonia, the Digital Republic
From ACM News

Estonia, the Digital Republic

Up the Estonian coast, a five-lane highway bends with the path of the sea, then breaks inland, leaving cars to follow a thin road toward the houses at the water's...
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