Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2016
From ACM News
The Physics of Life
First, Zvonimir Dogic and his students took microtubules—threadlike proteins that make up part of the cell's internal 'cytoskeleton'—and mixed them with kinesins, motor proteins that travel along these threads like trains on…
From ACM News
The Big Data of Bad Driving, and How Insurers Plan to Track Your Every Turn
For years, insurance companies have used estimates of your annual mileage to determine your car insurance rates.
From ACM News
Full-Circle Panorama Beside 'namib Dune' on Mars
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, partway through the first up-close study ever conducted of extraterrestrial sand dunes, is providing dramatic views of a dune's steep face, where cascading sand has sculpted very different textures…
From ACM News
Dancing with Drones
Drones may have a poor reputation as threats to privacy, but they offer a new dimension to dance.
From ACM TechNews
Face Time: Onr-Sponsored Tech Reads Facial Expressions For Autism Symptoms
A new app can screen for autism by reading children's facial expressions for emotional cues.
From ACM TechNews
Carnegie Mellon Develops New Method For Analyzing Synaptic Density
Carnegie Mellon University researchers say they are using machine learning to survey learning-related changes in synapse properties.
From ACM TechNews
Four Important Things to Expect in Virtual Reality in 2016
Significant virtual reality milestones are expected this year.
From ACM Opinion
In 2015, Promising Surveillance Cases Ran Into Legal Brick Walls
Today, the first Snowden disclosures in 2013 feel like a distant memory.
From ACM News
In Memoriam: Peter Naur 1928-2016
Peter Naur, a Danish computer scientist and 2005 recipient of the ACM A.M. Turing Award, died January 3 after a brief illness.
From ACM News
Page Views Don't Matter Anymore—but They Just Won't Die
The page view is a zombie.
From ACM TechNews
New Questions About Many Queries For Quantum Computing
Researchers in Canada have raised new concerns about the advantages of the bucket brigade model for algorithms using super-polynomial oracle queries.
From ACM TechNews
How Software Developers Helped End the Ebola Epidemic in Sierra Leone
A team of software developers helped solve the problem of distributing wages to healthcare workers fighting the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone.
From ACM TechNews
App Differentiates a Baby's Crying Sounds
Researchers at National Taiwan University Hospital have developed the Infant Cries Translator app, which can distinguish four separate crying sounds made by babies.
From ACM TechNews
What Happens When Virtual Reality Gets Too Real
A researcher is convinced virtual reality experiences can change users' thinking and behavior.
From ACM TechNews
'human Computation' Could Save the World Without the Risks of AI
Some scientists are urging human-machine collaboration via systems that integrate computer and human capabilities.
From ACM TechNews
Machines, Lost in Translation: The Dream of Universal Understanding
A universal translator remains an elusive goal more than 60 years after the creation of one was first undertaken.
From ACM News
Ipv6 Celebrates Its 20th Birthday By Reaching 10 Percent Deployment
Twenty years ago this month, RFC 1883 was published: Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification.
From Communications of the ACM
Preserving the Internet
Is the Internet ephemeral by its nature, or can it be archived?
From Communications of the ACM
Better Memory
Advances in non-volatile memory are changing the face of computing and ushering in a new era of efficiencies.
From Communications of the ACM
Seeing More Clearly
Computer understanding of images has improved rapidly, but true visual intelligence is still a long way off.
From Communications of the ACM
Gene Amdahl, 1922-2015
Gene Amdahl, who formulated Amdahl's Law and worked with IBM and others on developments related to mainframe computing, died recently from complications of pneumonia.