Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2016
From ACM News
The Tremendous Ambitions Behind New York City's Free Wifi
At this very moment in New York City, you can walk up to one of 65 futuristic kiosks, punch in an email address on your phone and instantly receive a wireless Internet connection that follows you around town.
From ACM TechNews
Diamonds May Be Quantum Computing's Best Friend
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed a new approach to maintaining quantum superposition using synthetic diamonds.
From ACM TechNews
Graphene Filter Could Make Wireless Data Transmission 10 Times Faster
Swiss researchers have developed a graphene filter for microchips that could lead to wireless transmission rates 10 times as fast as what chips deliver today.
From ACM TechNews
Why Our Crazy-Smart AI Still Sucks at Transcribing Speech
The task of providing accurate transcriptions of long blocks of human conversation remains beyond the abilities of even today's most advanced software.
From ACM News
Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?
If you, me and every person and thing in the cosmos were actually characters in some giant computer game, we would not necessarily know it.
From ACM News
The Future of Microchips
Intel, IBM, and others stake their claims to the future technology path for semiconductors.
From ACM Careers
Dear Silicon Valley: The Pentagon Has Sent You a Friend Request
When Defense Secretary Ashton Carter first spoke about the Pentagon's startup in Silicon Valley, the former Harvard physicist said he had great expectations.
From ACM News
Measurement of Universe's Expansion Rate Creates Cosmological Puzzle
The most precise measurement ever made of the current rate of expansion of the Universe has produced a value that appears incompatible with measurements of radiation left over from the Big Bang.
From ACM TechNews
Italians, Helped By an App, Translate the Talmud
The first Italian translation of the Babylonian Talmud has been completed after five years of work by scholars, linguists, philologists, editors, and computer scientists.
From ACM TechNews
A Fleet of Self-Driving Trucks Rumbles Across Europe
A fleet of about 12 self-driving trucks from six manufacturers for the first time completed a trip across parts of Europe this week.
From ACM TechNews
Watch an Autonomous Fencing Drone Dodge Sword Attacks
Stanford University researcher Ross Allen specializes in training robots to dodge obstacles at high speeds.
From ACM TechNews
Tech Companies Help Women Get Back to Work
Technology companies are leveraging internships and other programs to help women return to work and update the skills they need to be competitive.
From ACM TechNews
As Election Nears, Candidate Language Gets Simpler
Carnegie Mellon University researchers have found most U.S. presidential candidates' speeches use words and grammar typical of students in grades six through eight.
From ACM TechNews
Silicon Valley Could Gain $25 Billion By Narrowing Gender Gap
Closing the gender gap could net Silicon Valley $25 billion in gross domestic product by 2025, according to a new McKinsey study.
From ACM News
Kepler Spacecraft in Emergency Mode
During a scheduled contact on Thursday, April 7, mission operations engineers discovered that the Kepler spacecraft was in Emergency Mode (EM). EM is the lowest operational mode and is fuel intensive. Recovering from EM is the…
From ACM News
Are robots taking our jobs?
Will new technology spawn mass unemployment, as the robots take jobs away from humans?
From ACM News
Searching for Far Out and Wandering Worlds
Astronomers have made great strides in discovering planets outside of our solar system, termed "exoplanets."
From ACM News
Hiv Overcomes Crispr Gene-Editing Attack
HIV can defeat efforts to cripple it with CRISPR gene-editing technology, researchers say. And the very act of editing—involving snipping at the virus’s genome—may introduce mutations that help it to resist attack.
From ACM TechNews
'new Rembrandt' Unveiled in Amsterdam
A portrait titled "the Next Rembrandt" is the end-product of an 18-month project that brought together data scientists, developers, engineers, and art historians.
From ACM TechNews
These Are the Cities Where Tech Workers Live Largest
Annual data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics demonstrates the value of an education in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields.
From ACM TechNews
Autofocusing Contact Lenses? Today's Chip Research Peeks Into Tomorrow's Gadgets
Belgian design organization Imec is expanding into new territory with its latest computer chip technology research projects.
From ACM TechNews
The Robot Will See You Now: U of T Experts on the Revolution of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
The University of Toronto hosted a panel discussion Tuesday on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in medicine.
From ACM TechNews
The Next Hot Job in Silicon Valley Is For Poets
Demand for chatting virtual assistants and other artificial intelligence products is creating favorable job prospects for writers, poets, comedians, and others.
From ACM News
The Detectives Watching You from Space
Fans of crime writer Raymond Chandler's wise-cracking prose would no doubt be pleased that there's a real-life private detective agency run by two men called Raymond. But Ray Harris and Ray Purdy are not planning to tail unfaithful…
From ACM News
Mysterious Gravitational Tug on Orbiter May Help Find Planet Nine
The hunt is on to find "Planet Nine"—a large undiscovered world, perhaps 10 times as massive as Earth and four times its size—that scientists think could be lurking in the outer solar system.
From ACM News
Apps Help People with Autism Speak
Smartphones and tablets make it easier for people with disabilities to communicate, and for others to communicate with them.
From ACM News
IBM Wants to Implant Fake Brains in Real Brains to Prevent Seizures
Talk about neural networking.
From ACM News
Mapping the Brain to Build Better Machines
Take a three year-old to the zoo, and she intuitively knows that the long-necked creature nibbling leaves is the same thing as the giraffe in her picture book.
From ACM TechNews
w Robot Capable of Helping Patients With Physical Therapy Regimen
The University of Wyoming's Debbie Kretzchmar and her husband James are training a robot called Baxter to function as a coach for patients undergoing physical therapy.
From ACM TechNews
Composing Musical Portraits Through a Computer
North Carolina State University professor Rodney Waschka takes data from pictures, book covers, audio, and other sources to make a portrait of a person.