Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2013
From ACM TechNews
New Flash Memory Combines Graphene and Molybdenite
A flash memory prototype made from a combination of graphene and molybdenite offers promising performance, size, flexibility, and power characteristics.
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft Raises Mobile Payment Bar With Zero-Effort Payment
An experimental mobile payment system could enable users to pay for goods without having to get out their handsets.
From ACM TechNews
New Zealand Streamlines E-Health With Robotics Technology
Researchers are developing robotics technology to streamline healthcare for home-bound patients and the elderly in remote areas.
From ACM TechNews
Second Computer Glitch Stalls Nasa's Mars Rover
The Mars rover Curiosity recently put itself into safe mode after a software bug caused a command file to fail a size-check.
From ACM News
Hacking Highlights Dangers to Seoul of North's Cyber-Warriors
A hacking attack that brought down three South Korean broadcasters and two major banks has been identified by most commentators as North Korea flexing its muscles as military tensions on the divided peninsula sky-rocket.
From ACM News
How Nasa's Giant New Space Telescope Will Make Life on Earth Better
NASA is responsible for more Earth-bound technologies than just space ice cream; the organization's research has led to everything from new kinds of artificial limbs to better fire-fighting equipment (and don't forget Tang).
From ACM News
Princess Leia Hologram Could Become Reality
Scientists have created a glasses-free, 3D display that could mimic the famous hologram projection of Princess Leia in the original 1977 Star Wars film.
From ACM News
Curiosity's Discoveries Hint at Life's Cradle on Mars
NASA's Curiosity rover has found what it was looking for in its very first taste of Martian rock—much to everyone's surprise.
From ACM News
Curiosity Rover Exits 'safe Mode'
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has returned to active status and is on track to resume science investigations, following two days in a precautionary standby status, "safe mode."
From ACM News
Meet Yeti, the South Pole's Crevasse-Detecting Robot
Continental glaciers are interesting for all kinds of reasons. Ask the National Science Foundation, and it will likely tell you that drilling into the Greenland ice sheet can tell us a great deal about the Earth's climate 100…
From ACM News
Raspberry Pi Heads For the Open Ocean
Confronted with that tiny device, some have seen a way to play old arcade games, as a media server or to monitor their sleeping children. There are some that have used a Pi to control balloons that float to the edge of space.
From ACM TechNews
Big Data Roadblocks Will Slow Driverless Cars ntil 2040, Analyst Says
Despite aggressive predictions on the time frame for mainstream adoption of driverless cars due to progress in autonomous vehicle technology, some experts say privacy concerns and other issues might delay widespread adoption…
From ACM TechNews
Are You Paying Attention? Computer Says No
A computer system developed by scientists at St. Andrews University keeps users focused on their work by replacing the regular screen image with a calm and non-distracting visualization of the screen's activity.
From ACM TechNews
Sequester Cuts University Research Funds
The federal government is reducing support for academic laboratories across the United States to satisfy the sequester mandate to cut spending. The budget sequester is likely to shrink federal funding to universities for R&D…
From ACM TechNews
Web Pioneers Win Inaugural $1.5M Engineering Prize
The inaugural Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering will go to Internet and World Wide Web pioneers Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf, and Marc Andreessen of the United States, Louis Pouzin of France, and Sir Tim Berners-Lee of Britain…
From ACM TechNews
Finally, a Robot Chimp That Turns Into a Tank
Some of the contestants in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, launched in April 2012, are starting to reveal aspects of their projects. The Carnegie Mellon University team is developing an ape-like robot with tank treads undergirding…
From ACM TechNews
Bringing a Virtual Brain to Life
Critics say the Human Brain Project cannot succeed in creating a virtual brain within the 10-year time frame of a recent $1.3-billion European Union grant.
From ACM News
Cyberwar Manual Lays Down Rules For Online Attacks
Even cyberwar has rules, and one group of experts is putting out a manual to prove it.
From ACM News
Smartphones Are Reinventing—and Ditching—the Keyboard
In the future, your smartphone won't auto-correct your errors. It will correct them before they're even made.
From ACM News
When 'likes' Can Shed Light
Patterns of "Likes" posted by people on Facebook can unintentionally expose their political and religious views, drug use, divorce, and sexual orientation, researchers said.
From ACM TechNews
Videogame Power Harnessed For Positive Goals
U.S. researchers are praising video games for their positive effects on health, learning, and other social goals.
From ACM TechNews
'metasurfaces' to sher in New Optical Technologies
Purdue University researchers are developing optical technologies that could enable planar photonics devices and optical switches small enough to be integrated into computer chips for information processing and telecommunications…
From ACM News
Mind Plus Machine
Behind a locked door in a white-walled basement in a research building in Tempe, Ariz., a monkey sits stone-still in a chair, eyes locked on a computer screen.
From ACM News
U.s. Drones Fail to Identify Blind Spots of Iran's Radar Systems
A senior Iranian lawmaker lauded the country's Armed Forces for their vigilance and ability in discovering and repelling enemy aggressions, and said the US intended to pinpoint the blind spots of Iran's radar systems through…
From ACM News
Cyberattack on Florida Election Is First Known Case in U.s., Experts Say
An attempt to illegally obtain absentee ballots in Florida last year is the first known case in the U.S. of a cyberattack against an online election system, according to computer scientists and lawyers working to safeguard voting…
From ACM TechNews
Superhero Science: ic Students Build 'spidersense' Suit
University of Illinois at Chicago computer science, communication, and bioengineering students say they have created a suit equipped with sensory receptors that enable a wearer to "feel" their environment, in a manner similar…
From ACM TechNews
Study Shows Just How Fast Censorship Can Occur in Social Media
Researchers have found that Sina Weibo, the Twitter-like Chinese social media service, uses a combination of software and human censors to monitor and delete potentially controversial posts on the site in less than five minutes…
From ACM TechNews
New Research Discovers the Emergence of Twitter 'tribes'
Users of social network sites such as Twitter are forming tribe-like communities, according to a new project led by scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London, and Princeton University.
From ACM TechNews
The Age of the Sentient Machine Is Upon US
Noting that systems such as Apple's Siri and IBM's Watson supercomputer already can respond to voice recognition and synthesize speech, IBM fellow Grady Booch says that an-made intelligent devices will eventually become sentient…
From ACM TechNews
Ibm Eyes 'big Data' Help For Brain Injury
Aiming to leverage big data technology for the benefit of healthcare, IBM is working with Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center physicians to develop data-analysis technology that will improve traumatic brain injury treatment.