Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2016
From ACM News
Consumers and 3D Printing: The Future
The market, currently dominated by professional and hobbyist makers, could be changing.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Work Toward Storing Digital Information in Dna
Scientists are exploring the potential of custom-built DNA as a long-term data storage solution.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Program Cells to Remember and Respond to Series of Stimuli
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have used synthetic biology to program cells to remember and respond to a series of events.
From ACM TechNews
Single Camera Can Capture High Quality Facial Performance
Researchers have developed a method of using one camera to obtain facial performance capture, a key component of visual effects for movies and computer games.
From ACM Opinion
Americans Are Wary About Body-Enhancement Technologies
Emerging technologies that draw from biomedical technology, nanotechnology, information technology and other fields are developing at a rapid pace and may lead to any number of ways people might be able to "upgrade" themselves…
From ACM News
Feds Want to se Your Fingerprints to Open Iphones. Why Isn't It Working?
A single sentence was all that was needed to detail the results of a search warrant executed last month on a cell phone in Texas: "Unable to obtain forensic aquisition [sic] of the described device."
From ACM News
They Promised S Jet Packs. They Promised the Bosses Profit.
Project Foghorn is one of those straight-from-science-fiction concepts we've come to expect from Alphabet, the sprawling conglomerate formerly known as Google.
From ACM TechNews
Error Fix For Long-Lived Qubits Brings Quantum Computers Nearer
Researchers at Yale University have achieved a 20-fold increase in quantum bit lifetime.
From ACM Opinion
Microsoft's President Explains the Company's Quiet Legal War For ser Privacy
Apple's legal battle over encryption dominated headlines earlier this year, but another tech giant is fighting a quieter legal war over user privacy: Microsoft. It won a major victory last week, when the U.S. Court of Appeals…
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Invent 'smart' Thread That Collects Diagnostic Data When Sutured Into Tissue
Researchers have integrated sensors, electronics, and microfluidics into threads that can be sutured through multiple layers of tissue to gather diagnostic data in real time.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Glimpse Inner Workings of Atomically Thin Transistors
A team of physicists at the University of Texas at Austin says it has had the first-ever glimpse into an atomically thin new semiconducting material.
From ACM TechNews
Computer Scientists Find Way to Make All That Glitters More Realistic in Computer Graphics
A new algorithm promises to make the surfaces of a wide range of materials look a lot more realistic.
From ACM TechNews
Artificial Intelligence Camp Bridges STEM Gender Gap
The Stanford Artificial Intelligence Outreach Summer allows high school girls to hear lectures and conduct research with faculty in Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Lab.
From ACM TechNews
Machine Vision's Achilles' Heel Revealed By Google Brain Researchers
Machine vision algorithms have a weakness that enables them to be deceived by images modified in ways humans could easily detect.
From ACM News
Transistors Will Stop Shrinking in 2021, but Moore's Law Will Live On
Transistors will stop shrinking after 2021, but Moore's law will probably continue, according to the final International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS).
From ACM News
Nasa Mars Rover Can Choose Laser Targets on Its Own
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is now selecting rock targets for its laser spectrometer—the first time autonomous target selection is available for an instrument of this kind on any robotic planetary mission.
From ACM News
Chinese Scientists to Pioneer First Human Crispr Trial
Chinese scientists are on the verge of being first in the world to inject people with cells modified using the CRISPR–Cas9 gene-editing technique.
From ACM TechNews
How the World's Most Powerful Supercomputer Inched Toward the Exascale
China's Sunway TaihuLight in June topped the Top500 list as the world's most powerful supercomputer.
From ACM TechNews
Imaging Software Predicts How You Look With Different Hair Styles, Colors, Appearances
A personalized image search engine enables users to predict their appearance with a different hairstyle, or as they would look in a different time period, age, or country.
From ACM TechNews
Character Animation Technique Produces Realistic-Looking Bends at Joints
Phys.orgDisney researchers have developed a method to pre-compute an optimized center of rotation for each vertex in a character model.
From ACM TechNews
Program Gets Women Coding With Nasa Data
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration recently named 49 participants to its 2016 Datanauts program.
From ACM TechNews
Partially Automated Cars Provide Enough Benefits to Warrant Widespread Adoption of Current Safety Technologies
Carnegie Mellon University researchers say the public would benefit if safety-oriented, partially automated vehicle technologies were deployed in all cars.
From ACM News
X Marks the Spot For Milky Way Formation
A new understanding of our galaxy's structure began in an unlikely way: on Twitter. A research effort sparked by tweets led scientists to confirm that the Milky Way's central bulge of stars forms an "X" shape.
From ACM News
Baidu ses Millions of sers' Location Data to Make Predictions
Baidu, China's internet search giant, has shown just what you can learn when you have access to enough location data.
From ACM News
Snowden Designs a Device to Warn If Your Iphone's Radios Are Snitching
When Edward Snowden met with reporters in a Hong Kong hotel room to spill the NSA's secrets, he famously asked them put their phones in the fridge to block any radio signals that might be used to silently activate the devices’…
From ACM News
Scientists Program Cells to Remember and Respond to Series of Stimuli
Synthetic biology allows researchers to program cells to perform novel functions such as fluorescing in response to a particular chemical or producing drugs in response to disease markers.
From ACM TechNews
Wheeled Robot With Soft Rotary Motors Is 100-Percent Squishy
Rutgers University researchers have put four silicone-based wheels with air-powered motors inside of them on a robot that is as soft as a Crocs shoe.
From ACM TechNews
Software Adds New Level of Control to Industrial Knitting Machines
Disney researchers have developed software that enables users to program industrial knitting machines.
From ACM TechNews
Uta Researchers Use Text-mining Techniques to Improve Market Intelligence on Potential Mergers and Acquisitions of Startups in the High-Tech Sector
A new technique uses big data analytics and test-mining methods to improve market intelligence and explain potential mergers and acquisitions of high-technology startups.
From ACM TechNews
Facebook Plans to Beam Internet to Backwaters With Lasers
Facebook Connectivity Lab researchers have developed an optical technology to help laser beams deliver fast Internet access to remote areas.