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 News
Would You Bet Against Sex Robots? AI 'could Leave Half of World nemployed'
Machines could put more than half the world's population out of a job in the next 30 years, according to a computer scientist who said on Saturday that artificial intelligence’s threat to the economy should not be understated…
From ACM News
Particles in Love: Quantum Mechanics Explored in New Study
Here's a love story at the smallest scales imaginable: particles of light.
From ACM News
Gravitational Waves Exist: The Inside Story of How Scientists Finally Found Them
Just over a billion years ago, many millions of galaxies from here, a pair of black holes collided.
From ACM News
How Google Searches Pretty Much Nailed the New Hampshire Primary
Google's ability to look into the future of political contests just notched another win: New Hampshire.
From ACM TechNews
Crowdsourcing Software Could Help US Move House and Stay Where We Are
Holger Schnadelbach has developed a crowdsourcing website to provide a categorized overview of building adaptations and their causes.
From ACM TechNews
New Algorithm Improves Speed and Accuracy of Pedestrian Detection
University of California, San Diego (UCSD) researchers say they have developed a pedestrian-detection system more accurate than conventional systems.
From ACM TechNews
Artificial Intelligence Offers a Better Way to Diagnose Malaria
Autoscope is a new automated microscope equipped with artificial intelligence that is 90% accurate and specific at detecting malaria parasites.
From ACM TechNews
12 Questions For Vint Cerf
In an interview, Google vice president and past ACM president Vint Cerf discusses the Internet's transformation over the years.
From ACM TechNews
Study Finds That Anti-Crypto Laws Won't Work on an International Stage
A recent study concluded local regulations to restrict encryption technology would have no effect, considering the technology's international nature.
From ACM TechNews
Stanford Engineers' 'law, Order & Algorithms' Data Project Aims to Identify Bias in the Criminal Justice System
Stanford University researchers have launched the Project on Law, Order, & Algorithms, a database of 100 million traffic stops from across the U.S.
From ACM TechNews
Gps Tracking Down to the Centimeter
University of California, Riverside researchers say they have developed a more computationally efficient way to process data from global positioning systems.
From ACM News
Our Hidden Neandertal Dna May Increase Risk of Allergies, Depression
Depressed? Your inner Neandertal may be to blame.
From ACM News
Einstein's Gravitational Waves Found at Last
One hundred years after Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves, scientists have finally spotted these elusive ripples in space-time.
From ACM News
New Report Contends Mandatory Crypto Backdoors Would Be Futile
An estimated 63 percent of the encryption products available today are developed outside US borders, according to a new report that takes a firm stance against the kinds of mandated backdoors some federal officials have contended…
From ACM TechNews
Scientists' Robotically Driven System Could Reduce Cost of Discovering Drug and Target Interactions
Carnegie Mellon University researchers say they have created the first robotically-driven experimentation system to determine the effects of drugs on many proteins.
From ACM TechNews
Transistors Minus Semiconductors
Michigan Technological University professor Yoke Khin Yap has developed a room-temperature approach to harnessing tunneling field-effect transistors.
From ACM TechNews
Australia's Plan to Make a Digital Representation of Everything
Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization will build a "historical, current, and future digital representation of everything" in the country.
From ACM TechNews
How Microsoft's Video Game Tech Could Help Ms Patients
Microsoft, working with Novartis and three multiple sclerosis clinics in Europe, has created a prototype intelligent-camera system to track the disease's progress.
From ACM News
The Chips Are Down For Moore's Law
Next month, the worldwide semiconductor industry will formally acknowledge what has become increasingly obvious to everyone involved: Moore's law, the principle that has powered the information-technology revolution since the…
From ACM News
Knowledge Graphs Pick Needles from the Haystack
Using machine learning to wade through massive amounts of data.
From ACM News
Scientists Debate Signatures of Alien Life
Huddled in a coffee shop one drizzly Seattle morning six years ago, the astrobiologist Shawn Domagal-Goldman stared blankly at his laptop screen, paralyzed.
From ACM News
S Military: Robot Wars
When historians come to write about technological innovation in the first half of this century, they are likely to pay special attention to a US Navy drone called the X-47B—otherwise known as the Salty Dog.
From ACM TechNews
Study: Nobody Wants Social Robots That Look Like Humans Because They Threaten Our Identity
A recent study found the adoption of social robots into people's lives is complicated by humans' tendency to view human-like robots as a threat to their identity.
From ACM TechNews
Algorithm Developed to Predict Future Botnet Attacks
Researchers from Ben-Gurion University in Israel have developed an algorithm that can trace botnets back to their perpetrators.
From ACM TechNews
Spatial Technology Opens a Window Into History
The Strabo software developed at the University of Southern California reads scanned maps and automatically identifies historical locations.
From ACM TechNews
New Software Can Actually Edit Actors' Facial Expressions
FaceDirector software from Disney Research and the University of Surrey can blend images from multiple takes, making it possible to edit emotions on actors' faces.
From ACM TechNews
Cockroach-Like Robots May Be the Future of Disaster Help
The Compressible Robot with Articulated Mechanisms is a mini-robot that can mimic the cockroach's remarkable strength and agility.
From ACM News
Mind-Reading Tech Helps Beginners Quickly Learn to Play Bach
Every potential virtuoso needs a mentor. It just so happens that this one is a computer.
From ACM News
3D-Printed Display Lets Blind People Explore Images By Touch
Blind and partially sighted people often use tactile displays to interact with computers.
From ACM News
Fbi Director Says Investigators nable to nlock San Bernardino Shooter's Phone Content
FBI Director James Comey said on Tuesday that federal investigators have still been unable to access the contents of a cellphone belonging to one of the killers in the Dec. 2 shootings in San Bernardino, California, due to encryption…