Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2017
From ACM TechNews
Ada Lovelace Day Honors 'the First Computer Programmer'
Pioneering 19th-century English mathematician Ada Lovelace is honored on the second Tuesday of every October for her contributions to computer programming.
From ACM News
How Israel Caught Russian Hackers Scouring the World For .s. Secrets
It was a case of spies watching spies watching spies: Israeli intelligence officers looked on in real time as Russian government hackers searched computers around the world for the code names of American intelligence programs…
From ACM News
Shafi Goldwasser Appointed Director of the Simons Institute For the Theory of Computing
The Turing laureate will become the new director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at the University of California, Berkeley, on January 1, 2018.
From ACM News
The World's Oldest Scientific Satellite Is Still in Orbit
From his desk at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, space debris analyst Tim Flohrer keeps track of the 23,000 or so catalogued objects currently orbiting the Earth.
From ACM News
Mars Study Yields Clues to Possible Cradle of Life
The discovery of evidence for ancient sea-floor hydrothermal deposits on Mars identifies an area on the planet that may offer clues about the origin of life on Earth.
From ACM TechNews
Building the Blockchain to End All Blockchains
Despite the potential benefits of blockchain technology, it needs to overcome challenges in scalability, speed, and flexibility.
From ACM TechNews
Discovery and Innovation to Quicken With Supercomputer's $1-Million pgrade
A $1-million grant will help Clemson University's Palmetto Cluster supercomputer aid researchers in accelerating the pace of scientific discovery and technological innovation.
From ACM TechNews
Google Reveals Blueprint For Quantum Supremacy
Researchers say they have outlined a way to achieve quantum supremacy, demonstrating a proof-of-principle version of a quantum computer.
From ACM News
Out of Sight, Into Mind
Researchers are working to project an image directly into one's brain, completely bypassing the eyes.
From ACM Careers
Google, Facebook and Twitter scramble to Hold Washington at Bay
Google summoned about 200 policy staff from around the world last month for a debate on whether the company's size has made it too attractive as a target for government regulators.
From ACM News
National Academy of Engineering Announces Winners of 2017 Ramo Founders and Bueche Awards
The National Academy of Engineering's Simon Ramo Founders Award was to be presented to John E. Hopcroft on Sunday for his research contributions and leadership in engineering.
From ACM News
How Computers Turned Gerrymandering Into a Science
About as many Democrats live in Wisconsin as Republicans do.
From ACM News
Examining Mars' Moon Phobos in a Different Light
NASA's longest-lived mission to Mars has gained its first look at the Martian moon Phobos, pursuing a deeper understanding by examining it in infrared wavelengths.
From ACM TechNews
Good Vibrations For the Future of Computing
Researchers say they have demonstrated a new technology based on mechanical vibrations to perform logic operations.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Store Miles Davis and Deep Purple Audio Recordings on Dna in a Historic First
Researchers say they have successfully encoded two high-quality audio recordings onto artificial DNA, the first time this has been accomplished for the purposes of long-term data storage.
From ACM TechNews
Warning: This Algorithm Will Self-Destruct After It's sed
Two researchers say they have built a proof-of-principle algorithm that destroys itself after use.
From ACM TechNews
An Edible Actuator For Ingestible Robots
Researchers recently unveiled a prototype for a soft, edible pneumatic actuator fabricated from gelatin, which can serve as a crucial mechanism for ingestible robots.
From ACM TechNews
Filling the Pipeline For Computer Science Teachers
A shortage of computer science teachers is impeding state and local educators' adoption of new computer science mandates for students.
From ACM News
Supercomputer Redesign of Aeroplane Wing Mirrors Bird Anatomy
Engineers have used a supercomputing technique that mimics natural selection to design the internal structure of an aircraft wing from scratch.
From ACM News
Russians Took a Page from Corporate America By sing Facebook Tool to Id and Influence Voters
Russian operatives set up an array of misleading Web sites and social media pages to identify American voters susceptible to propaganda, then used a powerful Facebook tool to repeatedly send them messages designed to influence…
From ACM TechNews
Assessing Regional Earthquake Risk and Hazards in the Age of Exascale
Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories are constructing the first-ever end-to-end simulation code to capture the geology and physics of regional earthquakes, and characterize how tremors…
From ACM TechNews
wm-Developed App Helps Protect Patients' Brains During Surgery
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) say they have developed NeuroMapper, a tablet-based application that helps doctors make better decisions during brain surgeries.
From ACM TechNews
Hpc, Analytical ltracentrifugation, and a New Detector
Recent insights into how the West Nile virus replicates using cell proteins were gained using analytical ultracentrifugation technology.
From ACM TechNews
Brain-Controlled Drones Are Here
Panos Artemiadis at Arizona State University's Human-Oriented Robotics and Control Lab says the next three to five years will likely see the advent of unmanned vehicle swarms controlled by human-brain interfaces.
From ACM Careers
'mind-Boggling' Math Could Make Blockchain Work For Wall Street
A major breakthrough in cryptography may have solved one of the biggest obstacles to using blockchain technology on Wall Street: keeping transaction data private.
From ACM News
A Summer Away From the Keyboard
Three computer science students explain the pros and cons of spending their summer away from coding.
From ACM News
The Super-Earth that Came Home For Dinner
It might be lingering bashfully on the icy outer edges of our solar system, hiding in the dark, but subtly pulling strings behind the scenes: stretching out the orbits of distant bodies, perhaps even tilting the entire solar …
From ACM News
Cryo-Electron Microscopy Wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
One of the many perks of being human (upright walking, big brains, we can win awards) is our ability to transcend the limits of our senses. Take vision, for instance.
From ACM News
China Demonstrates Quantum Encryption By Hosting a Video Call
Chinese researchers have completed a practical demonstration of quantum key distribution, showing that it's possible to encrypt and send data between two locations in a highly secure way.
From ACM News
A Field Farmed Only By Drones
Across the United Kingdom, the last of the spring barley has been brought in from the fields, the culmination of an agricultural calendar whose rhythm has remained unchanged for millennia.