Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2014
From ACM TechNews
Big Data Analysis Reveals Gene Sharing in Mice
Scientists have identified at least three cases of cross-species mating in "old world" mice that likely had an impact on their evolutionary paths.
From ACM TechNews
Better Software Cuts Computer Energy se
The ENTRA project aims to develop tools to help software engineers create energy-efficient code.
From ACM News
Nyc Subways Slowly pgrading from 1930s-Era Technology
New York City's subways—the nation's biggest mass transit network—serve more than 6 million daily riders who depend largely on a signal system that dates back to the Great Depression.
From ACM News
The Dominant Life Form in the Cosmos Is Probably Superintelligent Robots
If and when we finally encounter aliens, they probably won't look like little green men, or spiny insectoids.
From ACM News
Rosetta Orbiter to Swoop Down On Comet in February
The European Space Agency's orbiting Rosetta spacecraft is expected to come within four miles (six kilometers) of the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in February of next year. The flyby will be the closest the comet…
From ACM TechNews
.k. Government to Lead Review Into Computer Science Degrees
The U.K. government launched a £6 billion Science and Innovation strategy, including the funding of an independent review into computer science degree accreditation to improve quality and graduate employability.
From ACM TechNews
German Researchers Discover a Flaw That Could Let Anyone Listen to Your Cell Calls
German researchers have discovered security flaws that could enable hackers, spies, and criminals to listen to private phone calls and intercept text messages. The revelation is the most recent indication of widespread insecurity…
From ACM News
Is There a Cyber Security Equivalent of 'seal Team Six'?
When a cyber breach goes down…who you gonna call? Many different U.S. government agencies, it turns out.
From ACM Opinion
Sony Made It Easy, but Any of S Could Get Hacked
Earlier this month, a mysterious group that calls itself Guardians of Peace hacked into Sony Pictures Entertainment’s computer systems and began revealing many of the Hollywood studio’s best-kept secrets, from details about unreleased…
From ACM TechNews
Stanford Team Combines Logic, Memory to Build a 'high-Rise' Chip
Stanford University researchers say they have developed a method for creating high-rise chips that could outperform conventional single-story logic and memory chips.
From ACM TechNews
Disney Research Builds Computer Models to Analyze Play in Pro Basketball and Soccer
Disney researchers used player-tracking data from more than 600 basketball games from the NBA to develop models that can make accurate in-game predictions of what each player is likely to do next in a game situation.
From ACM TechNews
Nasa Tests Software That May Help Increase Flight Efficiency, Decrease Aircraft Noise
NASA has developed air traffic management software that could make flights more efficient. The software assists pilots with precise spacing of planes by delivering specific speed information and guidance.
From ACM News
The Big Business of Selling Prescription-Drug Records
Since the days of 19th century remedies such as castor oil laxatives and mercury syphilis tablets, pharmacists and patients have had a tacit understanding: Whatever you buy is confidential. No longer.
From ACM News
How to Fool a Computer With Optical Illusions
Computers, like people, understand what they see in the world based on what they've seen before.
From ACM News
Comet Lander's Location Still Eludes Scientists
More than a month after the Philae spacecraft bounced to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, European Space Agency scientists still have not been able to figure out where it came to rest.
From ACM TechNews
Quantum Physics Makes Fraud-Proof Credit Cards Possible
Researchers at the University of Twente have used quantum mechanics to develop a method for protecting financial data and personal information. The method can confirm the identity of a person or object even if essential data…
From ACM TechNews
Forget Passwords, a Student Research Team Wants You to Log in By Speaking a Sentence
Student researchers at California State University, Fullerton are developing new biometric security technologies, including those based on facial recognition, fingerprints, and heartbeat sensors.
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft to Release Project Orleans as Open Source
Microsoft plans to open source Project Orleans, a distributed computing research framework for building cloud services. The company will release the code under an MIT license and publish it on the GitHub site in early 2015.
From ACM TechNews
Algorithm Identifies Networks of Genetic Changes Across Cancers
Brown University researchers used an algorithm that analyzes genetic data to identify networks of genes that, when hit by a mutation, could play a role in the development of multiple types of cancer.
From ACM News
Bots Now Outnumber Humans on the Web
Diogo Mónica once wrote a short computer script that gave him a secret weapon in the war for San Francisco dinner reservations.
From ACM News
Amputee Simultaneously Controls Two Prosthetic Arms with His Mind
Replacement limbs that completely replicate the functions and abilities of real limbs are the current white whale of prosthetics, and we're getting closer: mind-controlled robotics are becoming much more common, tapping into…
From ACM News
Thought Control Makes Robot Arm Grab and Move Objects
A woman paralysed from the neck down can now grab a ball with a robotic arm—just by thinking about it.
From ACM News
How Disney Is Perfecting Animated Eyeballs
Creating lifelike animated characters is hard.
From ACM News
Nasa Rover Finds Active and Ancient Organic Chemistry on Mars
NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic laboratory's drill.
From ACM TechNews
Students' Raspberry Pi Computers to Run on International Space Station
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has partnered with the U.K. European Space Agency and U.K. space companies to offer an Astro Pi competition that will challenge students to use Raspberry Pi computers to devise and code apps for experiments…
From ACM TechNews
Stanford to Host 100-Year Study on Artificial Intelligence
Stanford University will spearhead a century-long initiative to study and predict the impact of artificial intelligence in all aspects of people's lives.
From ACM TechNews
As Robots Grow Smarter, American Workers Struggle to Keep p
Economists and technologists have long said the march of technological progress and increased automation will create new jobs and opportunities that offset the jobs they make obsolete, but experts are increasingly less sure this…
From ACM TechNews
Code2040 Helps Tech Plan For a Non-White-Majority sa
By 2040, the United States will have a non-white majority, a demographic trend that is spurring tech companies to increase the diversity of their workforces. CODE2040 wants to help Silicon Valley companies make the industry as…
From ACM TechNews
Why Neural Networks Look Set to Thrash the Best Human Go Players For the First Time
University of Edinburgh researchers have applied machine-learning techniques and a vast database of games to train a neural network to find the next move in a game of Go.
From ACM News
Venus Express Goes Gently Into the Night
ESA's Venus Express has ended its eight-year mission after far exceeding its planned life. The spacecraft exhausted its propellant during a series of thruster burns to raise its orbit following the low-altitude aerobraking earlier…