Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2014
From ACM TechNews
Silicon Valley's Youth Problem
The growing chasm between Silicon Valley's next-generation of technology workers and the old guard might limit the creation of truly meaningful technology.
From ACM Opinion
Three Questions For Leslie Lamport, Winner of Computing's Top Prize
This year's winner of the Turing Award—often referred to as the Nobel Prize of computing—was announced yesterday as Leslie Lamport, a computer scientist whose research made possible the development of the large, networked computer…
From ACM TechNews
'big Data' Reveals Human Interests, Behavior
Researchers are analyzing big data to identify patterns in what motivates people to become interested in particular things, and what causes them to lose interest.
From ACM News
In Sickness and in Health: How Big Data Watches Over You
There are few places where you would less expect to find answers about the digital age than Iquitos, Peru.
From ACM News
Fiu’s Iyengar Inducted as a Fellow By National Academy of Inventors
Florida International University School of Computing and Information Sciences director S.S. Iyengar joins top scientists and innovation leaders elected 2013 Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors.
From ACM News
Jonathan Ive Designs Tomorrow
We use Jonathan Ive's products to help us to eat, drink and sleep, to work, travel, relax, read, listen and watch, to shop, chat, date and have sex.
From ACM News
ACM Turing Award Goes to Pioneer Who Advanced Reliability and Consistency of Computing Systems
Microsoft's Lamport Contributed to Theory and Practice of Building Distributed Computing Systems that Work
From ACM News
Ticket Pricing Puts 'lion King' Atop Broadway's Circle of Life
How did "The Lion King" turn around its once-shaky fortunes and become the top-grossing show on Broadway in 2013, an unprecedented feat for long-running musicals, which usually cool after a few hot seasons?
From ACM TechNews
Stanford Makes Flexible Carbon Nanotube Circuits More Reliable and Power Efficient
Stanford University researchers have developed a process to create flexible chips that can tolerate power fluctuations in much the same way as silicon circuitry.
From ACM TechNews
'ultracold' Molecules Promising For Quantum Computing, Simulation
Researchers say they have developed a method of using lasers to cool atoms, a process that could be applied to quantum computing and advanced simulations.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Hope to Secure Development of Mobile Apps With Faster Code Scans
Fraunhofer Institute researchers are developing three new tools to evaluate or enhance the security of mobile apps.
From ACM News
Facebook Creates Software That Matches Faces Almost as Well as You Do
Asked whether two unfamiliar photos of faces show the same person, a human being will get it right 97.53 percent of the time.
From ACM News
You Can Take Selfies of Your Aorta With This Mini Camera
Scientific studies of selfies have yielded interesting insights on personalities, gender differences, and national moods, but scientist F. Levent Degertekin has invented a new camera that can providehigh-def, 3-D images of your…
From ACM Careers
The First News Report on the L.a. Earthquake Was Written By a Robot
Ken Schwencke, a journalist and programmer for the Los Angeles Times, was jolted awake at 6:25 a.m. on Monday by an earthquake.
From ACM News
The Future of Brain Implants
What would you give for a retinal chip that let you see in the dark or for a next-generation cochlear implant that let you hear any conversation in a noisy restaurant, no matter how loud?
From ACM Opinion
The Search For Life Across the niverse
When Jeremy Drake was beginning his career in the late 1980s, the question of whether or not we are alone in the universe still seemed beyond the realm of scienc
From ACM News
Nasa Technology Views Birth of the Universe
Astronomers are announcing today that they have acquired the first direct evidence that gravitational waves rippled through our infant universe during an explosive period of growth called inflation.
From ACM TechNews
Stanford Students Show That Phone Record Surveillance Can Yield Vast Amounts of Information
The U.S. National Security Agency's telephone metadata program can yield details of the familial, political, professional, religious, and sexual associations of callers.
From ACM TechNews
U.s. to Cede Its Oversight of Addresses on Internet
The United States will give up its role overseeing the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
From ACM TechNews
W3c Boss Jeff Jaffe Explains How the Web Will Beat Smartphone Apps and Keep Growing
World Wide Web Consortium CEO Jeff Jaffe discusses how the Web will evolve to meet the challenge of smartphone users moving to closed apps.
From ACM TechNews
New Wireless Network to Revolutionize Soil Testing
A new sensor-based approach to soil testing promises to offer a more suitable method for measuring changes over time.
From ACM TechNews
Soft Robotic Fish Moves Like the Real Thing
Researchers say they have created a robotic fish that is the first self-contained autonomous soft robot capable of rapid body motion.
From ACM TechNews
IBM Nurtures Mainframe Workforce With World Championship
IBM recently announced its first-ever "Master the Mainframe" world championship.
From ACM News
.s. Navy Strategists Have a Long History of Finding the Lost
The uncertainties surrounding Malaysia Airlines Flight 370’s disappearance are enormous, but naval strategists have been unraveling lost-at-sea mysteries as far back as the U-boat battles of World War II, and perhaps most dramatically…
From ACM TechNews
Making Sense of Big Data
A University of California, Berkeley professor says he works "at the intersection of algorithms, machine learning, and collaborative crowdsourcing."
From ACM Careers
Careers in Statistics Evolve and Expand
Workers with statistics backgrounds have long been in healthy demand for academic, actuarial, pharmaceutical, or government jobs.
From ACM Opinion
The Data Brokers: Selling Your Personal Information
Over the past six months or so, a huge amount of attention has been paid to government snooping, and the bulk collection and storage of vast amounts of raw data in the name of national security.
From ACM News
Ancient Migration Patterns to North America Are Hidden in Languages Spoken Today
A few weeks ago, scientists announced an intriguing finding about the ancestors of today's Native Americans.
From ACM Careers
All Hacking Eyes on the Prize Money at Cansecwest
When it comes to hacking, it turns out that greed really is good.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Build Thinnest-Possible Leds to Be Stronger, More Energy Efficient
University of Washington researchers say they have developed the thinnest-known light-emitting diode that can be used as a source of light energy in electronics.