Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
June 2014
From ACM News
11 Amazing Images from High-Powered Microscopes
Thanks to high-powered microscopes we’re able to see life in incredible detail.
From ACM TechNews
niversity Engineers Design Systems to Help Children With Special Needs
Researchers are using a U.S. National Science Foundation grant to find ways to improve the health and quality of life for children with severe developmental disabilities.
From ACM TechNews
Open Data Is Open For Business
Open-data advocates say a multibillion-dollar industry could result from turning raw government data files into products for the public to consume or industries to buy.
From ACM TechNews
CLA Researchers Create Nanoscale Structure For Computer Chips That Could Yield Higher-Performance Memory
Researchers say a new nanoscale magnetic component for memory chips could drastically improve their energy efficiency and scalability.
From ACM News
How Online 'chatbots' Are Already Tricking You
Sometimes it's the promise of sex that fools you.
From ACM News
Cyberattack Insurance a Challenge For Business
Julia Roberts's smile is insured. So are Heidi Klum’s legs, Daniel Craig's body and Jennifer Lopez's derrière.
From ACM News
Paper Planes Transform Into Tiny Drones
It took Chuck Pell less than a minute to build his drone.
From ACM News
Think Fast, Robot
One of the reasons we don't yet have self-driving cars and mini-helicopters delivering online purchases is that autonomous vehicles tend not to perform well under pressure.
From ACM News
Virtual Soccer Now a World Cup Fan's Best Prediction Tool
Thursday marks the kickoff of the 2014 World Cup, signaling the start of a global guessing game about which two teams will appear in the finals of the 64-match bracket.
From ACM TechNews
niversity of Michigan to Create Simulated City to Test Future Robotic Cars
The University of Michigan is building a simulated city center across 32 acres on its North Campus to serve as the testing ground for automated vehicles.
From ACM TechNews
Teenager Unleashes Computer Power For Cancer Diagnosis
Duke University undergraduate Brittany Wenger recently spoke about her research into using artificial intelligence to teach computers to diagnose cancer.
From ACM TechNews
Innovative Diabetes App For Smartphones
A new smartphone-based system makes it easier for diabetics to plan their meals and control their blood glucose.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Propose Tactics for Ethical Use of Twitter Data
Researchers have proposed guidelines to ensure data mined from Twitter feeds is obtained and used ethically.
From ACM TechNews
Internet Giants Erect Barriers to Spy Agencies
Google and other major Internet service providers are working to make it harder and more costly for government intelligence agencies to penetrate their networks.
From ACM TechNews
Hail Cyborgs! The Line Between Robots and Humans Is Blurring
The advance of robotics heralds an increasingly porous boundary between machines and people.
From ACM TechNews
Discovery Opens New Path to Superfast Quantum Computing
Researchers have used a super-cold cloud of atoms to perceive a quantum phenomenon predicted 60 years ago, opening a new experimental path to quantum computing.
From ACM News
Turing Test Breakthrough as Super-Computer Becomes First to Convince US It's Human
A program that convinced humans it was a 13-year-old boy has become the first computer ever to pass the Turing Test.
From ACM Opinion
World Cup Kickoff Looms For Demo of Brain-Controlled Machine
During the World Cup next week, there may be 1 minute during the opening ceremony when the boisterous stadium crowd in São Paulo falls silent: when a paraplegic young person wearing a brain-controlled, robotic exoskeleton attempts…
From ACM Opinion
Tetris at 30: An Interview with the Historic Puzzle Game's Creator
Thirty years ago today, a little game about dropping geometrically strange thingamajigs — originally clusters of punctuation marks—into neat, lookalike rows kicked off on a wild journey that led it (and its Russian creator, Alexey…
From ACM News
Baggage Claim: Airlines Are Winning the War on Lost Luggage
The number of bags delayed, damaged or lost by airlines has fallen by more than half since the industry hit a low point for lost luggage six years ago.
From ACM TechNews
How to Raise a Personable Robot
Social roboticist Heather Knight's research focuses on making robots socially expressive so they can interact with people on a more personable level.
From ACM TechNews
Intelligent Machines for Tomorrow’s Factory
The European Union's SkillPro research project is developing a plug-and-produce process to speed mass manufacturing of industrial goods.
From ACM TechNews
Social Media Garden Is First Step in Creating 'emotional' Buildings
Computer scientists and architects are exploring whether architecture is able to reflect and map human emotions.
From ACM TechNews
App Paired With Sensor Measures Stress and Delivers Advice to Cope in Real Time
ParentGuardian is a smartphone-based system designed to detect stress in parents and help decrease that stress during interactions with their children.
From ACM TechNews
Pixar to Give Away 'toy Story' 3D Renderman Software
Pixar plans to make a non-commercial version of RenderMan freely available to students, institutions, researchers, developers, and for personal use.
From ACM Opinion
A Fast Look at Swift, Apple's New Programming Language
If anyone outside Apple saw Swift coming, they certainly weren't making any public predictions.
From ACM Careers
How Ebay's Research Laboratories Are Tackling the Tricky Task of Fashion Recommendations
If you've ever puzzled over what to wear in the morning, you might also have wondered whether you could leave the choice to an algorithm that could recommend a decent combination of clothes.
From ACM News
Theoretical Physics: Complexity on the Horizon
When physicist Leonard Susskind gives talks these days, he often wears a black T-shirt proclaiming "I ♥ Complexity".
From ACM TechNews
New Nanotech May Provide Power Storage in Cables, Clothes
A new method to transmit and store electricity in a single lightweight copper wire could lead to smaller electronic devices because it could make batteries obsolete.
From ACM Opinion
Robots: Can We Trust Them with Our Privacy?
Joss Wright is training a robot to freak people out.