Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2015
From ACM News
Biohackers Gear p For Genome Editing
A complete lack of formal scientific training has not kept Johan Sosa from dabbling with one of the most powerful molecular-biology tools to come along in decades.
From ACM News
Before a Robot Takes Your Job, You'll Be Working Side By Side
That's the takeaway from a new report by Forrester Research, Inc.
From ACM TechNews
Vint Cerf: 'sometimes I'm Terrified' By the Iot
Google chief Internet evangelist Vint Cerf says he finds certain aspects of the Internet of Things particularly worrisome.
From ACM News
Should Cops Be Allowed to Take Control of Self-Driving Cars?
A few lines in a seemingly routine RAND Corp. report on the future of technology and law enforcement last week raised a provocative question: Should police have the power to take control of a self-driving car?
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Tackle Issues Surrounding Security Tools for Software Developers
North Carolina State University researchers are seeking to address aspects of security tools for software developers.
From ACM TechNews
To Get Girls More Interest in Computer Science, Make Classrooms Less 'geeky'
The way computer science classrooms are decorated can influence high school girls' interest in taking introductory computer science classes, suggests a new study.
From ACM Careers
Why Gogo's Infuriatingly Expensive, Slow Internet Still Owns the Skies
In the fall of 2008, Louis C.K. was a guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and delivered a soon-to-be-viral rant called "Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy."
From ACM TechNews
MIT Builds a 3D Printer That Can se 10 Materials at Once
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers say they have built a three-dimensional printer capable of building objects with 10 photopolymer materials.
From ACM TechNews
Robots Learn to Make Pancakes From Wikihow Articles
European researchers have developed a robot that is learning to make pizzas and pancakes by reading through WikiHow's written directions.
From ACM TechNews
Smooth Robot Movements Reduce Energy Consumption By p to 40 Percent
An optimization algorithm developed by researchers in Sweden could potentially reduce energy consumption in robot-intensive manufacturing industries by up to 40%.
From ACM News
In Memoriam: Joseph Traub
Joseph Traub, a leading figure in developing the field of computational complexity, passed away Monday morning, August 24.
From ACM News
Court Says the Ftc Can Slap Companies For Getting Hacked
For companies like the dating site Ashley Madison or the health insurer Anthem, financial loss, customer anger and professional embarrassment aren't the only consequences of getting massively gutted by hackers. Now a court has…
From ACM News
In a Data-Driven N.f.l., the Pings May Soon Outstrip the X's and O's
When 80,000 fans pack MetLife Stadium each time the Giants and the Jets play this season, they are unlikely to notice the 22 new radio receivers placed discreetly around the building. Nor will they see the radio frequency chips…
From ACM News
Ticket to Ride: Financing For Code Camp
Financing options for coding boot camps help get new programmers gain skills, and eventually, jobs.
From ACM News
Reflective Satellites May Be the Future of High-End Encryption
Quantum key distribution is regularly touted as the encryption of the future. While the keys are exchanged on an insecure channel, the laws of physics provide a guarantee that two parties can exchange a secret key without knowing…
From ACM TechNews
Perth Researcher Develops Software That Can Recognize Plant Species sing Leaf Photos
Edith Cowan University's Hezekiah Babatunde has developed an image-recognition program that can identify plant species from a photograph of a single leaf.
From ACM TechNews
Facebook Open-Sources Hack Codegen
Facebook has open-sourced its library for automatically generating Hack code, a more scalable version of PHP.
From ACM TechNews
Creating the Next-Generation Manufacturing World
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Autodesk have signed a cooperative research and development agreement to experiment with design software.
From ACM News
Dawn Sends Sharper Scenes from Ceres
The closest-yet views of Ceres, delivered by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, show the small world's features in unprecedented detail, including Ceres' tall, conical mountain; crater formation features and narrow, braided fractures.
From ACM Opinion
How Close Are We Really to a Robot-Run Society?
From Rosie, the Jetsons' robot maid, to Arnold Schwarzenegger's cyborg in The Terminator, popular culture has frequently conceived of robots as having a human-like form, complete with "eyes" and mechanical limbs. But tech reporter…
From ACM Careers
Robokiller Wins Ftc Prize By Annihilating Robocalls
A new technology called "RoboKiller" has won a $25,000 grand prize from the Federal Trade Commission in the agency's "Robocalls: Humanity Strikes Back" contest aimed at promoting technologies to block and defeat the scourge of…
From ACM TechNews
Team Designs Robots to Build Things in Messy, npredictable Situations
Researchers at Harvard University and the State University of New York at Buffalo are developing robots able to function outside of ideal, predictable environments.
From ACM TechNews
Machine Learning Selects World's Next Top Models
Indiana University researchers have trained machine-learning algorithms to accurately predict the next batch of successful female fashion models.
From ACM TechNews
Crash-Tolerant Data Storage
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed what they call the first computer file system that ensures no loss of data when the system crashes.
From ACM TechNews
Cybersecurity Boot Camp Draws Congressional Staffers to Stanford
A bipartisan group of Capitol Hill staffers last week attended Stanford University's second Congressional Cyber Boot Camp.
From ACM TechNews
Algorithm Interprets Breathing Difficulties to Aid in Medical Care
Researchers say they have developed an algorithm that can interpret patients' breathing patterns to let medical providers know what is happening in their lungs.
From ACM TechNews
New Internet Routing Method Allows sers to Avoid Sending Data Through ndesired Geographic Regions
University of Maryland researchers have developed a way to prove to Internet users that their information did not cross through certain geographic areas.
From ACM TechNews
You'd Never Know It Wasn't Bach (or Even Human)
A Yale University computer scientist is refining a program that produces music, which has fooled more than 200 humans into thinking the music was created by a human.
From ACM Careers
Silicon Valley Icon Wants to Hack His Way to the Presidency
Silicon Valley icon Lawrence Lessig knows his moonshot bid for the White House hinges on the innovation and support of the tech industry.
From ACM News
Google Ordered to Remove Links to Stories about Google Removing Links to Stories
The U.K.'s Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has ordered Google to remove links from its search results that point to news stories reporting on earlier removals of links from its search results.