Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2015
From ACM TechNews
Exotic States Materialize With Supercomputers
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have used supercomputers to find a new class of materials that possess an exotic state of matter.
From ACM TechNews
To Avert Another Heartbleed, Open Source Group Narrows List of Projects in Need of Support
The Core Infrastructure Initiative was formed to identify and provide extra funding to critical open source projects that need help ensuring the security of their code.
From ACM TechNews
Google Retires Spdy in Favor of Http/2
Google plans to phase out its SPDY open networking protocol in early 2016 and instead support HTTP/2 in Chrome.
From ACM News
The Face Detection Algorithm Set To Revolutionise Image Search
Back in 2001, two computer scientists, Paul Viola and Michael Jones, triggered a revolution in the field of computer face detection.
From ACM News
In Image-Guided Operating Suites, Surgeons See Real-Time Mri, Ct Scans
Surgeons sometimes fly blind when operating on hard-to-reach anatomical parts or hard-to-see conditions.
From ACM News
The Coming Boom In Brain Medicines
Tony Coles could have had any job he wanted in the drug industry.
From ACM News
Jupiter Glimpsed As Aliens Would See It
Astronomers have observed Jupiter for centuries.
From ACM News
European Languages Linked to Migration from the East
A mysterious group of humans from the east stormed western Europe 4,500 years ago—bringing with them technologies such as the wheel, as well as a language that is the forebear of many modern tongues, suggests one of the largest…
From ACM TechNews
Nasa Rides Artificial Intelligence to the Moon and Mars
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration will use artificial intelligence to schedule research opportunities for its many probes and rovers.
From ACM TechNews
With Google Glass App Developed at cla, Scientists Can Analyze Plants' Health in Seconds
A new Google Glass application enables the wearer to quickly analyze the health of a plant without damaging it.
From ACM TechNews
Data Storage For Eternity
ETH Zurich researchers say they have found a way to store information for more than a million years.
From ACM TechNews
How to Interest Girls in Computer Science and Engineering? Shift the Stereotypes
A University of Washington study identifies inaccurate, negative stereotypes as the key culprits in the underrepresentation of women in computer science and engineering.
From ACM TechNews
Vint Cerf Warns of 'digital Dark Age'
Former ACM president Vint Cerf worries a forthcoming "digital Dark Age" will leave behind mountains of data people will no longer be able to access.
From ACM TechNews
Cynthia Breazeal: Social Robotics Pioneer. MIT Lab Leader. Proud Mom
In an interview, Cynthia Breazeal, director of the robotics lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and creator of the Jibo family robot, explores her life.
From ACM TechNews
Smartphone App Tracks Students' Class Attendance Automatically
Facial-recognition algorithms power a new smartphone app that will enable college instructors to take classroom attendance more effectively and efficiently.
From ACM News
Robots Can Build Cars; Now They Learn Not to Crush You
Robots long ago earned a place in factories, where their pneumatic pumps and steel welding arms help manufacture everything from cars to planes.
From ACM News
Computer Algorithm Can Accurately Identify Jackson Pollock Paintings
Like his work or hate it, it's clear that the painter Jackson Pollock pioneered a distinctive visual style with his drip paintings.
From ACM News
A Crypto Trick That Makes Software Nearly Impossible to Reverse-Engineer
Software reverse engineering, the art of pulling programs apart to figure out how they work, is what makes it possible for sophisticated hackers to scour code for exploitable bugs.
From ACM TechNews
Doe Pilots Big Data Infrastructure Projects
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers recently demonstrated what could be gained when facilities and tools are linked to complete specialized research.
From ACM Opinion
How Moore's Law Made Google Possible
Gordon Moore's famous calculation of the gains in power and economy that would drive chip production continues to have profound implications for every enterprise, no matter what the sector. But most of us have difficulty grasping…
From ACM TechNews
Google Study Shows Users Fail to Understand Security Warnings
Researchers found changes to the text and graphics used in security warnings can help prompt users to take corrective action.
From ACM TechNews
A Computer Model to nderstand the Genetic Basis of Disease
Splicing-based Analysis of variants (SPANR) is a computer model that can predict the effects mutations in the human genome would have on splicing.
From ACM TechNews
Thermal Management a Hot Topic in Microelectronic Devices
Researchers say they have achieved a breakthrough in the effort to accurately measure temperature at the scale of individual microelectronic devices.
From ACM News
Making AI Robust and Beneficial
A call for proposals on maximizing the social benefits of AI.
From ACM News
Taking the Robot Dog For a Walk
It's a video which is bound to go viral. Spot sets off down an office corridor, and then out into the open air.
From ACM Careers
Watching the Universe in Real Time
Even though the sky looks about the same every night to those of us here on Earth, cataclysmic things happen in outer space constantly.
From ACM News
Why Comets Are Like Deep Fried Ice Cream
Astronomers tinkering with ice and organics in the lab may have discovered why comets are encased in a hard, outer crust.
From ACM News
The Invisible Network That Keeps the World Running
It’s been just over 45 years since the Apollo Moon landings, and some would have it that we are failing to build big anymore; that we've since become too fascinated with the small, too impressed by our tablet computers, games…
From ACM News
In Japan, Dog Owners Feel Abandoned as Sony Stops Supporting 'aibo'
Yahui and Tatsuo Matsui met because of their dogs, Ai and Doggy.
From ACM TechNews
Walking, Driving, and Riding in a Winter Wonderland
A geographer at the University of Maryland is using big data culled from social media to develop better models of the ways people behave when snow begins to fall.