Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
June 2016
From ACM News
A Simpler Twist of Fate
Until the day it dies, a cell that has become a skin cell remains a skin cell—or so scientists used to think.
From ACM News
Court Backs Rules Treating Internet as Utility, Not Luxury
High-speed internet service can be defined as a utility, a federal court has ruled in a sweeping decision clearing the way for more rigorous policing of broadband providers and greater protections for web users.
From ACM News
Solving Paralysis sing Brain Computer Interfaces
Before the opening match of the 2014 World Cup in São Paulo, Juliano Pinto, a young paraplegic Brazilian, was brought out onto the sidelines wearing a huge exoskeleton.
From ACM TechNews
Service Robots Are Coming to Help US
A U.S. National Science Foundation program aims to advance and integrate robotics into people-centered service systems in homes, hospitals, and elder-care facilities.
From ACM TechNews
Yale Scientists Amplify Light sing Sound on a Silicon Chip
Yale University scientists have used the power of sound to significantly boost the intensity of light waves on a silicon microchip.
From ACM TechNews
Closing Security Gaps in Internet-Connected Household
Ruhr University Bochum researchers are developing a way to detect and fix vulnerabilities in applications that run on different devices, regardless of processor.
From ACM TechNews
Can Computers Do Magic?
Queen Mary University of London researchers have found magicians could use computers to create new magic effects and find new ideas for their performances.
From ACM TechNews
Machine-Vision Algorithm Learns to Transform Hand-Drawn Sketches Into Photorealistic Images
Researchers at Denmark's Radboud University have trained a deep convolutional neural network to convert hand-drawn sketches of faces into photorealistic portraits.
From ACM News
Cybercrime Market Sells Servers For as Little as 6 Dollars to Launch Attacks
A major underground marketplace acting like an eBay for criminals is selling access to more than 70,000 compromised servers allowing buyers to carry out widespread cyber-attacks around the world, security experts said on Wednesday…
From ACM News
Nasa Mars Rover Descends Plateau, Turns Toward Mountain
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has analyzed its 12th drilled sample of Mars. This sample came from mudstone bedrock, which the rover resumed climbing in late May after six months studying other features.
From ACM News
Goodbye, Obamaberry. Hello, Obamadroid.
When President Barack Obama took office in 2009, he pushed to keep his BlackBerry.
From ACM News
3d/vr Malady May Have Simple Solution
A simple low-tech solution appears to compensate for the vergence-accommodation conflict.
From ACM TechNews
Silicon Fingerprint on Chips Could Make Any Gadget Unhackable
At least one U.S. bank has started supplying its customers with credit and debit cards that contain a physically unclonable function.
From ACM TechNews
Robots to Provide a Steadying Hand at the Right Time
The U.S. National Science Foundation is funding several robotics-related projects across the U.S. designed to improve people's safety and well-being.
From ACM TechNews
Stanford Researchers Calculate Groundwater Levels From Satellite Data
Stanford University researchers are using satellite data to determine groundwater levels across larger areas than ever before.
From ACM News
The Quest to Make Code Work Like Biology Just Took A Big Step
In the early 1970s, at Silicon Valley's Xerox PARC, Alan Kay envisioned computer software as something akin to a biological system, a vast collection of small cells that could communicate via simple messages.
From ACM News
On Her Microphone's Secret Service: How Spies, Anyone Can Grab Crypto Keys from the Air
Discerning secret crypto keys in computers and gadgets by spying on how they function isn't new, although the techniques used are often considered impractical.
From ACM News
Australian Compsci Boffins Score Queen's Birthday Gongs
Australian computer scientists were among those recognized in this year's Queen's Birthday Honors.
From ACM News
Gps Doesn't Work nderwater
To prepare for the possibility that it will one day deploy swarms of uncrewed drone submarines, the U.S. Navy is developing a system that will allow the global positioning system (GPS) to function deep below the ocean's surface…
From ACM Opinion
What Are the Odds We Are Living in a Computer Simulation?
Last week, Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and other cutting-edge companies, took a surprising question at the Code Conference, a technology event in California.
From ACM News
Red Astroturf: Chinese Government Makes Millions of Fake Social Media Posts
Data scientists at Harvard University have found that the government of the People's Republic of China generates an estimated 448 million fake social media posts per year.
From ACM TechNews
Automatic Debugging of Software
Singapore Management University researchers have developed an automated approach for debugging software that combines elements of previous solutions.
From ACM TechNews
Light Packing More Data Has Potential to Increase Bandwidth By 100 Times
Researchers want to replace optical communications systems about to hit a bandwidth limitation.
From ACM TechNews
Bringing Programming--and Social Change--to Girls
A group of eighth-grade girls participating in the U.S. National Science Foundation's Co-Robots for CompuGirls event programmed a pair of humanoid robots.
From ACM TechNews
Nsf Funds 'wearable Doctor'
The U.S. National Science Foundation-funded Health and Environmental Tracker project recently unveiled a functional prototype.
From ACM TechNews
Tongue-Machine Computer Interfaces Are Here
Tongue input technology using glossokinetic potential is capable of directing motorized wheelchairs and could lead to successful silent speech-recognition technology.
From ACM News
In Mapping Eclipses, World's First Computer Maybe Also Told Fortunes
A 2,000-year-old astronomical calculator used by ancient Greeks to chart the movement of the sun, moon and planets may also have had another purpose—fortune telling, say researchers.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Discover New Way to Turn Electricity Into Light, sing Graphene
Researchers have discovered a sheet of graphene can cause an electric current to surpass the speed of decelerated light and rapidly generate a focused beam.
From ACM News
Going Digital May Make Analog Quantum Computer Scaleable
There are many different schemes for making quantum computers work (most of them evil). But they pretty much all fall into two categories.
From ACM News
How Intel Makes a Chip
Before entering the cleanroom in D1D, as Intel calls its 17 million-cubic-foot microprocessor factory in Hillsboro, Oregon, it's a good idea to carefully wash your hands and face.