Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2011
From ACM News
Scientists Unveil Tools for Rewriting the Code of Life
MIT and Harvard researchers have developed technologies that could be used to rewrite the genetic code of a living cell, allowing them to make large-scale edits to the cell’s genome. Such technology could enable scientists…
From ACM News
Codebook Shows an Encryption Form Dates Back to Telegraphs
If not for a computer scientist’s hobby of collecting old telegraph codebooks, a crucial chapter in modern cryptography might have been lost to history.
From ACM TechNews
University of Utah Computer Science Camp Teaches Kids About Technology
This summer the University of Utah is hosting 350 students in elementary, middle, and high school for one- and two-week computer science camps.
From ACM TechNews
Wolfram Research Introduces New Programmable Document Type
Wolfram Research says it has developed the Computable Document Format (CDF), a new document format that allows the person who creates a document to embed code, thus enabling the data to be manipulated in real time when the user…
From ACM TechNews
Ibm Speeds Storage With Flash: 10b Files in 43 Minutes
IBM researchers have created a data storage system that can scan 10 billion files in 43 minutes, using flash memory to store the metadata, which the storage system uses to locate requested information.
From ACM News
Black Hat Pwnie Award Winner Will Be a Criminal
Law enforcement may be interested to see if anyone actually shows up to this year to accept the annual Pwnie Award for Epic Ownage at Black Hat, since all the nominees face possible criminal charges.
From ACM News
The Importance Of Analyzing Social Intelligence
Huge amounts of data emanating from Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites, which is known collectively as “social intelligence, ” is being gathered, managed, and analyzed. The insights it creates into markets and…
From ACM News
Hint of Higgs, but Little More
When its experiments started in earnest earlier this year, many scientists hoped that the world's most powerful collider would turn up new particles, additional dimensions, and perhaps even a small black hole or two. But beyond…
From ACM News
Decoding Your Email Personality
Imagine, if you will, a young Mark Zuckerberg circa 2003, tapping out mail messages from his Harvard dorm room. It's a safe bet he never would have guessed that eight years later a multibillion-dollar lawsuit might hinge on…
From ACM News
Why Bitcoin Is Not As Anonymous As Most sers Think
People who use Bitcoin to ensure their purchases remain anonymous may want to reconsider their reliance on the online peer-to-peer currency, say researchers who have investigated the network of Bitcoin transactions.
From ACM TechNews
Computer Program Could 'revolutionize the World's Healthcare'
The University of Manchester and a group of more than 25 academic institutions and industrial partners are collaborating on IT Future of Medicine, a 10-year project to create computational models of individuals that could develop…
From ACM TechNews
Computers Understand Hand-Waving Descriptions
A new gesture-based interface developed by the Hasso Plattner Institute's Christian Holz and Microsoft Research's Andy Wilson does not require users to memorize a specific set of movements.
From ACM TechNews
Caltech Researchers Create the First Artificial Neural Network Out of Dna
Caltech researchers have developed an artificial neural network out of DNA, creating a circuit of interacting molecules that can recall memories based on incomplete information.
From ACM TechNews
Prof Says Tech Entering the Age of the Algorithm
University of Texas at Dallas professor Andras Farago thinks that as algorithms become more important to software development, educational and career opportunities will follow.
From ACM TechNews
Advocates Lament Computer Science Gap in Standards Push
Computing in the Core, an advocacy group whose members include ACM, Google, Microsoft, the Computer Science Teachers Association, and the National Science Teachers Association, issued a press release criticizing the National…
From ACM News
Thousands of Security Cameras Capture New Yorkers Every Move Around City
At first glance, the guy in the white polo shirt and khaki pants looks like anybody else walking down Broadway.
From ACM News
Social Media History Becomes a New Job Hurdle
Companies have long used criminal background checks, credit reports and even searches on Google and LinkedIn to probe the previous lives of prospective employees. Now, some companies are requiring job candidates to also pass…
From ACM News
Living in the Digital Ecosystem
LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman talks data mash-ups, entrepreneurship, and how his site keeps people honest.
From ACM News
How to Stay Safe Online While Traveling
Taking a trip with always-on digital devices can be like traveling with your safe—and forgetting to lock it.
From ACM TechNews
DARPA Seeks to Learn From Social For Warfare
The U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency has launched the Social Media in Strategic Communication program, which aims to develop new ways to use social media sites to help it utilize technology…
From ACM TechNews
Robots Use Kinect to Understand Our World
Cornell University researchers are teaching robots to understand the context of their surroundings so that they can pick out individual objects in a room.
From ACM TechNews
Discovery May Overcome Obstacle For Quantum Computing: Ubc, California Researchers
Researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the University of California, Santa Barbara say they have made a major advance in predicting and eliminating environmental decoherence, a phenomenon that has been one…
From ACM TechNews
Ibm's Watson Breaks New Ground in Artificial Intelligence
One of the major challenges that the computer science industry has been facing is the development of a machine that can answer unmodified human questions.
From ACM TechNews
Fewer Verbs and Nouns in Financial Reporting Could Predict Stock Market Bubble, Study Shows
University College Dublin researchers say the stock market can be predicted by the way financial commentators describe market activity.
From ACM News
Nasa's Next Mars Rover to Land at Gale Crater
NASA's next Mars rover will land at the foot of a layered mountain inside the planet's Gale crater. The car-sized Mars Science Laboratory, or Curiosity, is scheduled to launch late this year and land in August 2012. The target…
From ACM News
Smartphones Get Smarter About Payments
Paying for the morning commute will soon be accomplished by the wave of a smartphone. State and local governments are joining Internet, credit card, and wireless companies to let consumers pay for everything from groceries…
From ACM News
Study: Less Than 50% of Smartphone Users Make Calls
What's the point of a smartphone? If you answered "To make calls," then congratulations: You're in the minority. A new survey from social communications company CloudTalk has found that making calls is only the fourth most…
From ACM News
Welcome to the Age of the Splinternet
Openness is the Internet's great strength—and weakness. With powerful forces carving it up, is its golden age coming to an end?
From ACM News
Little-Known Firms Tracking Data Used in Credit Scores
Atlanta entrepreneur Mike Mondelli has access to more than a billion records detailing consumers’ personal finances—and there is little they can do about it.
From ACM News
Recruiters Outnumber Job-Seekers at Hacker Fair
Tom Sherlock demonstrated his wearable computer. Steven Neff, hemmed in by a scrum of recruiters from Google, Rackspace and Pulse News, showed off his art-filled news Web site, Politicallyillustrated.com. Jen Costillo impressed…