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 News
Nasa Rover Finds Conditions Once Suited For Ancient Life on Mars
An analysis of a rock sample collected by NASA's Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes.
From ACM TechNews
Foreign Students Now a Majority in .s. Computer Science Grad Schools
Foreign students represent the majority of students in U.S. computer science department graduate programs.
From ACM Opinion
Rethinking Objects and Form Are Key to 3D Printing Revolution
3D printing has already changed the game for manufacturing specialized products such as medical devices but the real revolution will come when designers start to rethink the shapes of objects.
From ACM News
Hagel to Order Review of Drone Medal Precedence
New Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has halted production of a new controversial medal intended to honor drone pilots pending a review of its official rank above some combat valor medals in the military's "order of precedence."
From ACM Careers
A Laboratory Grows Young Scientists
During lunch hour, the hallways of Ossining High School have a kind of barely contained chaos.
From ACM News
Clues Suggest Malware Is Moving from Pcs to Mobile Devices
The fact that smartphones and tablets don't need antivirus software or regular software updates is a major reason for their popularity.
From ACM TechNews
How to Predict the Progress of Technology
Moore’s Law and Wright’s Law offer the best predictions of the pace of technological progress, researchers say.
From ACM TechNews
Improving Electronics by Solving Nearly Century-Old Problem
Research into low-frequency electronic 1/f noise ("pink noise") could lead to a continued downscaling of conventional electronic devices.
From ACM TechNews
Taking Transistors Into a New Dimension
Researchers say they have built the first 3D nanometric transistor.
From ACM Opinion
Kim Dotcom Is the Anti-Zuckerberg: Share Nothing, Encrypt Everything, Be Happy
Appearing like a retro-futuristic apparition, digitally transmitted through pneumatic tubes from a future that was but will never be, the disembodied head of Kim Dotcom, the Osama bin Laden of file sharing, bobbed and hovered…
From ACM News
Curiosity Rover's Recovery Moving Forward
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity continues to move forward with assessment and recovery from a memory glitch that affected the rover's A-side computer.
From ACM News
Skype's Been Hijacked in China, and Microsoft Is O.k. With It
Jeffrey Knockel is an unlikely candidate to expose the inner workings of Skype's role in China’s online surveillance apparatus.
From ACM News
Facebook 'likes' Predict Personality
Researchers at Cambridge University used algorithms to predict religion, politics, race and sexual orientation.
From ACM News
Practicing Medicine at the Nanoscale
Modern medicine is largely based on treating patients with "small-molecule" drugs, which include pain relievers like aspirin and antibiotics such as penicillin.
From ACM News
Big Data, Big Blunders
Companies are finding that big data doesn't necessarily translate into easy success.
From ACM News
How Big Data Is Changing the Whole Equation For Business
There's a ton of information out there. And businesses are figuring out how to put it to work.
From ACM News
Star Trek 'holodeck' in the Living Room?
With "immersive media" taking content well beyond the TV screen, new technology is attempting to move virtual reality towards something even closer to real life.
From ACM News
Disentangling Photons and Atoms to Keep Quantum Systems Clean
In quantum physics, the divisions between object and observer—the systems and environment—become blurred.
From ACM TechNews
Report Highlights Latest Data on Women, Minorities and Persons With Disabilities in Science and Engineering
Women, persons with disabilities, American Indians, African Americans, and Hispanics appear underrepresented in science and engineering education and jobs.
From ACM TechNews
Making Music Wins Over Computer Science Majors
A hands-on music project as part of an entry-level digital music class helps students learn complex computer science concepts.
From ACM TechNews
New Software Could Help Cut Hospital Admissions
A new software product allows medical professionals to track a patient's progress through the healthcare system and see where care may differ from guidelines.
From ACM TechNews
More Secure Bank Cards
A new automated system can inspect handwritten signatures directly on a bank card.
From ACM TechNews
Students Develop Secure New Procedure For Online Banking
Researchers working with a financial IT solutions firm have developed a process that makes online banking more secure.
From ACM TechNews
China's Next-Generation Internet Is a World-Beater
China is developing a next-generation national Internet that reportedly is on a larger scale than anything being developed in the West.
From ACM TechNews
Algorithms Get a Human Hand in Steering Web
While the work computers do becomes increasingly complex, humans still may be called upon to provide the programs with context and nuance.
From ACM Opinion
Sxsw: Google's Amit Singhal Talks Natural-Language Search, Mobile
How do you build a search engine that's more attuned to natural language, capable of divining what you mean, and giving back what you want?
From ACM Opinion
Tim Berners-Lee on the Making of New Worlds
The Internet should be open.
From ACM News
Web-Based 'brain' For Robots Goes Live
Robots confused about what they encounter in the world of humans can now get help online.
From ACM News
Everything We Know About What Data Brokers Know About You
Data companies are scooping up enormous amounts of information about almost every American. They sell information about whether you're pregnant or divorced or trying to lose weight, about how rich you are and what kinds of cars…
From ACM News
The History of Hadoop: From 4 Nodes to the Future of Data
Depending on how one defines its birth, Hadoop is now 10 years old. In that decade, Hadoop has gone from being the hopeful answer to Yahoo’s search-engine woes to a general-purpose computing platform that’s poised to be the foundation…