Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2018
From ACM TechNews
Smartphones Come in Handy For Rare Cosmic Particles Search
Researchers say they have improved a method for analyzing ultra-high-energy cosmic rays with mobile phones.
From ACM TechNews
Quantum Race Accelerates Development of Silicon Quantum Chip
Researchers have demonstrated that the quantum information of an electron spin can be transported to a photon in a silicon quantum chip.
From ACM TechNews
When It Comes to Teaching Coding, China's Parents Won't Get With the Program
The Chinese government wants to cultivate programming skills in children, but parents are reluctant to encourage it.
From ACM News
Tech Firms Let Russia Probe Software Widely sed By .s. Government
Major global technology providers SAP (SAPG.DE), Symantec (SYMC.O) and McAfee have allowed Russian authorities to hunt for vulnerabilities in software deeply embedded across the U.S. government, a Reuters investigation has found…
From ACM News
DARPA Wants to Build an Image Search Engine Out of Dna
Most people use Google's search-by-image feature to either look for copyright infringement, or for shopping.
From ACM News
Physicists Create Star Wars-Style 3D Projections; Just Don't Call Them Holograms
Daniel Smalley has long dreamed of building the kind of 3D holograms that pepper science-fiction films.
From ACM TechNews
Combating Data Breach Fatigue
Cyberattacks are so frequent that consumers can experience data breach fatigue, marked by an unwillingness to change passwords or sign up for identity theft protection.
From ACM TechNews
Drone Light Shows Look Cool, but How Do They Work?
Scientists are exploring multi-robot systems technology.
From ACM TechNews
New Algorithm Identifies 10 Times More Naturally Occurring Antibiotics Than All Previous Studies
VarQuest is a new computational approach for peptidic natural products identification that could identify about 10 times more of such products than all previous studies.
From ACM TechNews
Yale Students Design Chrome Extension to Combat Fake News
Open Mind is a new Google Chrome extension designed to combat fake new.
From ACM News
Technologies Support Dementia Patients
A small but growing category of assistive technologies is aimed at people with cognitive disabilities.
From ACM News
Trump Administration Wants to End Nasa Funding For Iss By 2025
The Trump administration is preparing to end support for the International Space Station program by 2025.
From ACM News
The (almost) Complete History of 'fake News'
In record time, the phrase morphed from a description of a social media phenomenon into a journalistic cliche and an angry political slur.
From ACM News
Major Payment Company: 'fewer and Fewer se Cases' For Bitcoin Payments
Stripe is one of the most popular ways for small online organizations to accept credit card payments. And in 2014 it became one of the first major payment processors to support bitcoin payments.
From ACM TechNews
Trust Me, I'm a Robot
In an interview, Ayanna Howard discusses her work directing the Georgia Institute of Technology's Human-Automation Systems Lab.
From ACM TechNews
Drones Learn to Navigate Autonomously By Imitating Cars and Bicycles
The DroNet algorithm enables drones to fly by themselves through the streets of a city and in indoor environments.
From ACM TechNews
Coders Are Shifting to Silicon Valley-Backed Programming Languages
Developers are planning to focus on languages created and popularized by Silicon Valley technology companies, according to HackerRank's 2018 Developer Skills Report.
From ACM TechNews
New Autonomous Car Can Handle Snow and Ice
Researchers at the VTT Technical Research Center in Finland have developed a self-driving vehicle designed to maneuver in rough and icy conditions.
From ACM TechNews
Students se Sandbox to Demonstrate Gravity
Gravbox is a new augmented reality sandbox developed to help explain how gravity affects objects when they travel through a certain environment.
From ACM News
Mosaic's Birthday: 25 Years of the Modern Web
Twenty-five years ago, the first release of Mosaic Web browser appeared and the Web, as you know it, began.
From ACM News
AI Can Read! Tech Firms Race to Smarten p Thinking Machines
Seven years ago, a computer beat two human quizmasters on a "Jeopardy" challenge. Ever since, the tech industry has been training its machines even harder to make them better at amassing knowledge and answering questions.
From ACM News
Engineers Design Artificial Synapse For 'brain-on-a-Chip' Hardware
When it comes to processing power, the human brain just can't be beat.
From ACM News
Bitcoin and Ethereum Have a Hidden Power Structure, and It's Just Been Revealed
In cryptocurrency circles, calling something "centralized" is an insult.
From ACM News
Intel Halts Some Chip Patches as the Fixes Cause Problems
The chipmaker's updates were meant to fix the Meltdown and Spectre design flaws, but have been causing computers to unexpectedly reboot.
From ACM News
New Nasa Cassini Image of Saturn Moon Has a Surprise
Usually, the postcards stop after a journey ends, but not so for robotic adventurer Cassini, whose epic journey exploring Saturn and its neighbors finished in September.
From ACM TechNews
Guarding Against the Possible Spectre in Every Machine
The recent disclosure of the Spectre and Meltdown chip vulnerabilities is symptomatic of most technology firms following poor supply-chain precautions, says one professor.
From ACM TechNews
New Defenses Sought Against Gps Spoofing Attacks
Researchers have received $1 million from the U.S. National Science Foundation to fortify computers and devices against cyberattacks associated with timekeeping.
From ACM TechNews
Meet Antifa's Secret Weapon Against Far-Right Extremists
Computer science professor Megan Squire has created an array of programs that monitor approximately 400,000 accounts of white nationalists on Facebook and elsewhere.
From ACM News
Facebook Says Social Media Isn't always Healthy For Democracy
From ACM News
Cartoon Clinicians: Precursors of Virtual Therapy?
Soldiers in one study were more open with a virtual character about post-traumatic stress symptoms than with human doctors.