Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2016
From ACM TechNews
Marvin Minsky's Legacy of Students and Ideas
The late computer science pioneer and ACM A.M. Turing Award recipient Marvin Minsky left behind a wealth of ideas.
From ACM TechNews
Enabling Human-Robot Rescue Teams
Researchers say they have developed a new way of modeling robot collaboration.
From ACM News
Encryption Isn't at Stake, the Fbi Knows Apple Already Has the Desired Key
Apple has been served with a court order at the FBI's request, demanding that it assist the government agency with unlocking an iPhone 5C that was used by Syed Rizwan Farook. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 and…
From ACM News
John Mcafee Offers To Decrypt San Bernardino Iphone For Fbi And Save America
Eccentric 'cybersecurity legend' John McAfee is on a mission to save America. How so? By cracking the code on that San Bernardino iPhone that's causing such a ruckus.
From ACM News
The Missing Link of Artificial Intelligence
In 2012 the world learned of a surprising research project inside Google's secretive X lab.
From ACM News
Four Big Cosmology Secrets Gravitational Waves Could ncover
On 11 February, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave observatory, or LIGO, announced it had spotted gravitational waves, the stretching and squeezing of space-time created by the movement of massive objects.
From ACM News
Evidence Mounts For Interbreeding Bonanza in Ancient Human Species
The discovery of yet another period of interbreeding between early humans and Neanderthals is adding to the growing sense that sexual encounters among different ancient human species were commonplace throughout their history.
From ACM TechNews
How the Open Compute Project's Telco Project Could Transform the Iot, Driverless Cars
The Open Compute Project recently announced the Telco Project, which is focused on data center technologies for telecommunications companies.
From ACM TechNews
New Computer Vision Algorithm Predicts Orientation of Objects
Disney researchers say they have developed a method to help computer-vision systems avoid the confusion associated with changes in perspective.
From ACM TechNews
His Work Opens Computer Science to the Blind
University of Nevada-Las Vegas professor Andreas Stefik spent 10 years developing Quorum, a programming language designed for visually impaired people.
From ACM TechNews
Crunching Quantum Code
Researchers have developed a quantum computer design featuring an array of superconducting islands on top of a topological insulator.
From ACM News
Advertising via Algorithm
Global programmatic advertising is projected to account for 60% of all digital display ads this year.
From ACM News
How Apple Will Fight the Doj in Iphone Backdoor Crypto Case
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday evening said the US government's legal position on encryption backdoors was setting "a dangerous precedent."
From ACM News
The Truth About Exoplanets
The trickle of discoveries has become a torrent.
From ACM Careers
Why Naval Academy Students Are Learning to Sail By the Stars For the First Time in a Decade
Peter Hogan was surprised at how heavy the sextant felt in his hand when he squinted through its eyeglass this week, the first time he had ever held one.
From ACM News
Q&a: A Look at the Apple vs Justice Dept. Court Fight
A U.S. magistrate judge has ordered Apple to help the FBI break into a work-issued iPhone used by a gunman in the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.
From ACM TechNews
Eye-Opening Optical Research Projects That Could Supercharge the Internet
Several research teams around the world are investigating optical technologies that have the potential to make networks--and the Internet--faster and more efficient.
From ACM TechNews
My Robot Valentine: Could You Fall in Love With a Robot?
In the future, Valentine's Day for some could involve a romantic dinner with a robot, speculate Queensland University of Technology researchers.
From ACM TechNews
Robot Art Raises Questions About Human Creativity
Art created by machines raises unanswered questions about its potential and whether it can truly be defined as creative or imaginative.
From ACM TechNews
Why Sarcasm Is Such a Problem in Artificial Intelligence
Researchers in India and Australia recently published a paper outlining 10 years of research efforts from groups interested in detecting sarcasm in online sources.
From ACM TechNews
Data Analysis of Github Contributions Reveals nexpected Gender Bias
An analysis of millions of GitHub pull requests found women's contributions were accepted more frequently than men's, but only if they had gender-neutral profiles.
From ACM TechNews
Scaanalyzer: An Award-Winning Tool to Find Computing Bottlenecks
ScaAnalyzer is a new tool that can find elusive bugs in software and enable computers to run faster and more efficiently.
From ACM News
Tim Cook Opposes Order For Apple to nlock Iphone, Setting p Showdown
Apple said on Wednesday that it would oppose and challenge a federal court order to help the F.B.I. unlock an iPhone used by one of the two attackers who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif., in December.
From ACM News
History-Making Philae Lander Faces 'eternal Hibernation' on Comet
Exactly 15 months after it completed a seemingly impossible journey to land on the surface of a comet, the Philae lander now faces "eternal hibernation," as officials at the European Space Agency say the craft doesn't get enough…
From ACM News
Creating a Computer Voice That People Like
When computers speak, how human should they sound?
From ACM News
The Best AI Still Flunks 8th Grade Science
In 2012, IBM Watson went to medical school. So said The New York Times, announcing that the tech giant’s artificially intelligent question-and-answer machine had begun a "stint as a medical student" at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner…
From ACM TechNews
Drones Learn to Search Forest Trails For Lost People
Researchers have developed software that enables drones to autonomously detect and follow forest paths.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Engineer an Electronics First Opening Door to Flexible Electronics
University of Alberta researchers say they have developed a transistor that could lead to flexible electronic devices with wide-ranging applications.
From ACM TechNews
Virtual Reality Can Significantly Reduce Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety in Just a Month By Turning Sufferers Into Avatars
University College London researchers have developed a virtual-reality system they say could help reduce the symptoms of depression.
From ACM News
The Chips Are Down For Moore’s Law
The semiconductor industry will soon abandon its pursuit of Moore's law. Now things could get a lot more interesting.