Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
November 2018
From ACM News
Exploding Stars Make Key Ingredient in Sand, Glass
We are all, quite literally, made of star dust. Many of the chemicals that compose our planet and our bodies were formed directly by stars.
From ACM TechNews
Disaster Relief Is Dangerously Broken. Can AI Fix It?
The use of artificial intelligence in disaster relief is gaining favor as weather-related catastrophes grow in frequency and severity.
From ACM TechNews
Inside Nike's Store of the Future
Nike new flagship store in New York City is focused on personalized, experiential shopping, allowing shoppers with the Nike app to check out items via phone, request deliveries to dressing rooms, and schedule appointments with…
From ACM TechNews
Christiana Care Honored for Innovative se of Virtual Reality During Chemotherapy
The Christiana Care Health System was awarded the 2018 Magnet Prize from the American Nurses Credentialing Center for its use of virtual reality technology to improve patients' experience during chemotherapy.
From ACM TechNews
Learning to Attack the Cyberattackers Can't Happen Fast Enough
Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab Security and Privacy Institute aims to expand the boundaries of technology and protect people when that technology or its users pose a threat.
From ACM TechNews
Amazon, Google Poised for Race to Hire High-Tech Talent
Amazon and Google are respectively planning to recruit Microsoft C#- and Java-savvy engineers and Python users in a fierce competition for technology talent.
From ACM News
Playing Catch-p, Germany Throws Money at AI
Germany plans to invest more than 3 billion euros ($3.39 million) by 2025 to beef up its artificial intelligence capabilities and appoint 100 professors to lecture about it, as it seeks to close a digital technology gap with …
From ACM News
NASA Learns More About Interstellar Visitor 'Oumuamua'
In November 2017, scientists pointed NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope toward the object known as 'Oumuamua,' the first known interstellar object to visit our solar system.
From ACM News
World’s First Automated Volcano Forecast Predicts Mount Etna's Eruptions
Smoke filled the cabin as the Boeing 747 plunged towards snow-covered mountains in southern Alaska. All four engines had shut down, and it took the pilots eight long minutes to regain control of the aircraft.
From ACM TechNews
What Complex Technology Can Learn From Simple Ants
Ants' pheromone-laying and -following behavior has inspired an algorithm that uses artificial ants in a virtual environment to solve optimization problems.
From ACM TechNews
FNecole: Social-Emotional Learning Meets Computer Science and Digital Literacy
A European company has combined social-emotional learning with computer science into an elementary education digital curriculum that may soon be offered to U.S. schools.
From ACM TechNews
The Big Spenders in Research and Development
Global technological research and development spending will top $2 trillion this year, according to R&D Magazine's 2018 Global R&D Funding Forecast.
From ACM TechNews
New Deep Knowledge AI System Could Resolve Bottlenecks in Drug Research
A new system can predict the binding of biosequences in seconds and potentially reduce bottlenecks in drug research.
From ACM News
Quantum Clouds Leap Ahead
D-Wave offers access to a cloud-based quantum application environment.
From ACM News
Spectre, Meltdown Researchers nveil 7 More Speculative Execution Attacks
Systematic analysis reveals a range of new issues and a need for new mitigations.
From ACM News
FDA Approves First HoloLens Augmented Reality System for Surgical se
The technology projects two-dimensional, three-dimensional, and four-dimensional 2D, 3D and 4D images of patients interactively by overlaying them onto the patient's body.
From ACM News
Say Au Revoir to that Hunk of Metal in France that Has Defined the Kilogram
The world is about to say au revoir to Le Grand K, a cylinder of platinum and iridium that has long reigned over the world's system of weight measurement.
From ACM News
Where Will Science Take s? To the Stars
After 30 hours of bumping along on planes and buses, at long last I stood in the darkness and gazed upon an immense night sky.
From ACM TechNews
AI Could Make Cyberattacks More Dangerous, Harder to Detect
Scientists warn that hackers could weaponize artificial intelligence to conceal and accelerate cyberattacks and potentially escalate their damage.
From ACM TechNews
pgraded .S. Supercomputers Claim Top 2 Spots on Top500 List
U.S. supercomputers are now ranked in first and second place on the latest Top500 list, due to upgrades.
From ACM TechNews
To Keep Old Growth Out of New Shirts, Fashion Turns to Technology
Clothing brands collaborated with a Canadian nonprofit to build a website that can identify forests that should be kept pristine, to make supply chains less ecologically destructive.
From ACM TechNews
Eye-Tracking Technology Could Help AR
Dartmouth College researchers have developed battery-free eye-tracking glasses that could enhance augmented reality technologies.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Improve Smartphone Battery Life by p to 60%
Researchers in the U.K. have developed a way to improve the battery life of mobile devices, by minimizing the power consumption of mobile apps by up to 60%.
From ACM TechNews
New Way to Cool Computer Chips Involves Laser Metal Printing
A new manufacturing technique can keep electronics cooler by as much as 18 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing faster, more efficient computation.
From ACM News
'Reprogrammed' Stem Cells Implanted Into Patient with Parkinson's Disease
Japanese neurosurgeons have implanted 'reprogrammed' stem cells into the brain of a patient with Parkinson's disease for the first time.
From ACM News
NASA's ARIA Maps California Wildfires from Space
California continues to be plagued by wildfires, including the Woolsey Fire near Los Angeles and the Camp Fire in Northern California, now one of the deadliest in the state's history. NASA satellites are observing these fires—and…
From ACM TechNews
Computers + Collaboration = Student Learning, According to New Meta-Analysis
An international research team analyzed 425 studies conducted since 2000 and concluded computers that support student collaboration beneficially affect learning.
From ACM TechNews
Pitt Researcher ses Video Games to nlock New Levels of AI
The University of Pittsburgh's Daniel Jiang has developed algorithms that learn decision strategies in complex and uncertain environments, and tests them on video games.
From ACM TechNews
New Attacks on Graphics Processors Endanger User Privacy
University of California, Riverside scientists have determined how hackers can exploit graphics processing units to expose private data.
From ACM News
Researchers Rev p Review of Peer Review
Although the global scientific community is becoming more diverse, developing ways to make certain peer reviewers are true "peers" is lagging behind.