Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2015
From ACM TechNews
Black Phosphorus Is New 'wonder Material' For Improving Optical Communication
Researchers have demonstrated high-speed data communication on nanoscale optical circuits using a 20-atom-thick film of black phosphorus.
From ACM TechNews
Mozilla Tackles Parallel Javascript
Mozilla wants to bring parallelism to JavaScript in an attempt to fully leverage hardware capabilities.
From ACM News
Researchers Report Milestone in Developing Quantum Computer
Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and at Google reported on Wednesdayin the journal Nature that they had made a significant advance that brings them a step closer to developing a quantum computer.
From ACM News
Oxford Celebrates 200th Birthday of Ada Lovelace
This year, the University of Oxford will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of computer visionary Ada Lovelace.
From ACM News
Rosetta Catches Its Own Shadow
The highest resolution image yet taken of Comet 67P by the Rosetta satellite has just been released.
From ACM Careers
China Says Tech Firms Have Nothing to Fear from Anti-Terror Law
China's proposed anti-terrorism law will not affect the legitimate interests of technology firms, a top Chinese spokeswoman said Wednesday after U.S. President Barack Obama warned of its impact and demanded amendments.
From ACM TechNews
'freak' Flaw Undermines Security For Apple and Google Users, Researchers Discover
Companies and government agencies are scrambling to correct a major security flaw revealed this week.
From ACM TechNews
New App Monitors Net Neutrality in Mobile Networks
Northeastern University researchers have developed an app for detecting traffic differentiation in mobile networks.
From ACM TechNews
Why Computers Still Struggle to Tell the Time
Despite the extreme precision of most modern computer systems, software engineer George Neville-Neil says it remains difficult for them to accurately tell time.
From ACM TechNews
Panoramas for Your Tablet
Panoramic video could soon pop up on the screens of smart TVs, smartphones, and tablets.
From ACM TechNews
Cockroach Robots? Not Nightmare Fantasy but Science Lab Reality
Texas A&M University researchers have fused a computer onto the back of a live cockroach in order to control the insect.
From ACM News
This Woman Flew an F-35 Simulator with Her Mind
Jan Scheuermann, a quadriplegic and pioneering patient for an experimental Pentagon robotics program, continues to break ground in freeing the mind from the body.
From ACM TechNews
Google, Stanford Use Machine Learning on 37.8m Data Points For Drug Discovery
Researchers at Stanford University and Google have used machine-learning techniques to find effective drug treatments for a variety of diseases.
From ACM News
Testing to Diagnose Power Event in Mars Rover
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is expected to remain stationary for several days of engineering analysis following an onboard fault-protection action on Feb. 27 that halted a process of transferring sample material between devices…
From ACM News
Study Finds That Refactoring Doesn't Improve Code Quality
New research finds that, contrary to popular belief, restructuring software code to be more maintainable and efficient may not be worth the time and effort.
From ACM News
How Alien Life Might Look on Saturn's Moon Titan
Alien lifeforms may exist in the solar system but they would look very different to life on Earth, scientists have suggested.
From ACM News
The First Ever Photograph of Light as Both a Particle and Wave
Light behaves both as a particle and as a wave. Since the days of Einstein, scientists have been trying to directly observe both of these aspects of light at the same time.
From ACM News
Hunting Black Holes at the South Pole
Each of the telescopes that the astronomers of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) are currently working to bring into their black-hole-observing, planet-size array is a special case.
From ACM TechNews
Innovative, Lower Cost Sensors and Controls Yield Better Energy Efficiency
A new wireless sensor prototype could reduce the costs of collecting data such as outside air and room temperature, humidity, light level, occupancy, and pollutants.
From ACM Careers
Six Keys to Sports Analytics
The ninth annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (SSAC) was the biggest meeting yet of sports-data experts: More than 3,100 people attended the event last Friday and Saturday, including a notable number of 6-foot-8-inch…
From ACM TechNews
New Research Signals Big Future For Quantum Radar
An international research team has developed a prototype quantum radar that could be used to detect objects invisible to conventional systems.
From ACM TechNews
Professor Lorrie Cranor Gives Lecture on Password Security
Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute recently hosted a seminar on the study of password security led by CMU professor Lorrie Cranor.
From ACM News
Nasa Spacecraft Nears Historic Dwarf Planet Arrival
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has returned new images captured on approach to its historic orbit insertion at the dwarf planet Ceres.
From ACM News
Google Wants to Rank Websites Based on Facts Not Links
The internet is stuffed with garbage.
From ACM News
Chip Makers Push New Senses For Smartphones–mobile World
Smartphones are about to get smarter, chip makers say, exploiting technologies that recognize people, objects and sounds to boost security and take helpful actions on behalf of users.
From ACM Opinion
The Easiest Way to Get Hacked: se Phone at Phone Show
From ACM News
7 Things Net Neutrality Won't Do
When it comes to the new Net neutrality rules adopted last week by the Federal Communications Commission, people think either that US regulators have liberated the Internet from the shackles of oppressive broadband providers…
From ACM TechNews
Could Ibm's Brain-Inspired Chip Change the Way Computers Are Built?
A team from IBM last week traveled to Washington, D.C., to demonstrate new computer chips inspired by the structure of the brain.
From ACM TechNews
Qr Codes Engineered Into Cybersecurity Protection
University of Connecticut researchers want to use quick response codes to protect national security.
From ACM TechNews
Data Mining Indian Recipes Reveals New Food Pairing Phenomenon
Indian Institute of Technology researchers have created a flavor network in which food ingredients are linked if they appear together in the same recipe.