Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2014
From ACM News
NASA Space Assets Detect Ocean inside Saturn Moon
NASA's Cassini spacecraft and Deep Space Network have uncovered evidence Saturn's moon Enceladus harbors a large underground ocean of liquid water, furthering scientific interest in the moon as a potential home to extraterrestrial…
From ACM TechNews
Princeton Compsci Prof Wins Prestigious Award
An expert in machine learning and Bayesian statistics at Princeton University is the recipient of the 2013 ACM-Infosys Foundation Award in Computer Sciences.
From ACM TechNews
In the Long Run: Keeping Track of Athletes with Wearable Tech
Researchers have developed a wireless position location system that works anywhere conventional global-positioning systems satellites cannot reach.
From ACM TechNews
Knowledge Transfer: Computers Teach Each Other Pac-Man
A computer now can give advice and teach skills to another computer similar to the way a real teacher interacts with a student.
From ACM TechNews
The Build-Up: Good and Ready
Robotics appears to be preparing for a major acceleration after a slow start.
From ACM TechNews
Early STEM Education Will Lead to More Women in It
Girls Who Code says schools must develop mandatory computer science programs for K-12 if the technology industry wants more women in its workforce.
From ACM News
With California's Red Light Cameras, Are Pictures Admissible Evidence?
Carmen Goldsmith was driving her BMW through Inglewood, a Los Angeles suburb, when she ran a red light.
From ACM News
Physicists Are Building an Nsa-Proof Internet
It's long been the Holy Grail of communications: technology that not only maximizes privacy, but also reveals when a message had been intercepted or copied.
From ACM Opinion
While Warning of Chinese Cyberthreat, .s. Launches Its Own Attack
The U.S. government has long complained about Chinese hacking and cyberattacks, but new documents show that the National Security Agency managed to penetrate the networks of Huawei, a large Chinese telecommunications firm, gathering…
From ACM News
Wanna Build a Rocket? Nasa's About to Give Away a Mountain of Its Code
Forty years after Apollo 11 landed on the moon, NASA open sourced the software code that ran the guidance systems on the lunar module.
From ACM News
'electronic Skin' Equipped with Memory
Researchers have created a wearable device that is as thin as a temporary tattoo and can store and transmit data about a person's movements, receive diagnostic information and release drugs into skin.
From ACM Opinion
Vint Cerf: CS Changes Needed To Address Iot Security, Privacy
The Internet of Things has tremendous potential but also poses a tremendous risk if the underlying security of Internet of Things devices is not taken into account, according to Vint Cerf, Google’s Internet Evangelist.
From ACM TechNews
Twitter Maps Show Americans' Beer Preferences
University of Kentucky (UK) researchers mapped tweets to discover the real-world preferences of brews and beer brands in the United States.
From ACM TechNews
DHS Turns to Mentors to Strengthen Cyber Workforce
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has adopted a rotation and mentorship strategy to help find and develop qualified cybersecurity professionals.
From ACM TechNews
Optical Information Processing on Chips Inspired by Human Brain
The way the human brain works is the inspiration for a new technique for optical information processing on chips.
From ACM TechNews
Computer Building Blocks Made Using Slime Mold
Researchers have constructed logic units from the slime mold Physarum polycephalum that can process information.
From ACM News
Commercial Drones Grounded By a Lack of Regulation
The U.S. is moving very slowly in regulating the commercial use of aerial drones.
From ACM News
Exomars Scientists Narrow Down Landing Sites
Scientists have picked four potential landing sites for a European rover designed to search for life on Mars.
From ACM News
Fact or Fiction?: Your Car Is Hackable
When your home computer is hacked, the things at risk are your identity, finances and other digital assets.
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft Builds a Digital 'monkey' to Hunt Fraudulent Ads
Researchers have developed technology, known as a digital monkey, that can detect and counter fraudulent advertisements on a large scale.
From ACM TechNews
MIT Researchers Bring Javascript to Google Glass
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed WearScript, a Javascript environment that runs on Google Glass.
From ACM TechNews
Supreme Court Weighs Software Patents
It is not yet clear whether the U.S. Supreme Court will help bring greater clarity to the rules governing software patents.
From ACM TechNews
Can a Computer Craft Compelling Stories?
University of Southern California professor Andrew Gordon has a new project that involves getting computers to read and generate stories.
From ACM TechNews
Immigrants From the Future
Robots intrigue both designers and enthusiasts in a way that goes beyond the technology's current practical applications.
From ACM TechNews
NSA Performed Warrantless Searches on Americans' Calls and Emails
The U.S. National Security Agency has performed warrantless searches of its databases to obtain data from Americans' phone calls and emails.
From ACM News
The Internet Is Killing Most Languages
You might be living through another mass extinction of species—brought on by us humans, who have been changing climate and fragmenting habitats at an increasing clip—but what you probably don't know is that you might also be…
From ACM News
Pay with Your Fingerprint
Anyone with an iPhone 5 can use its fingerprint reader to unlock the device and pay for apps or music in Apple's iTunes store.
From ACM News
Getting to Know ... Jason
The JASON group is a low-profile, high-level adviser to the U.S. government on defense, science, and technology.
From ACM News
Carnegie Mellon Robot Invites Humans to Play Mean Game of Scrabble
Victor is obsessed with SCRABBLE.
From ACM News
How Gmail Happened: The Inside Story of Its Launch 10 Years Ago Today
If you wanted to pick a single date to mark the beginning of the modern era of the web, you could do a lot worse than choosing Thursday, April 1, 2004, the day Gmail launched.