Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2017
From ACM TechNews
Kathy Yelick Charts the Promise and Progress of Exascale Science
ACM Fellow Kathy Yelick of the University of California, Berkeley, discusses the scientific applications fueling exascale computing.
From ACM TechNews
Stretchy Artificial 'skin' Could Give Robots a Sense of Touch
Rubberized electronics and sensors that function normally when stretched up to half of their length could operate as artificial skin on robots.
From ACM TechNews
Congressional Redistricting Less Contentious When Resolved sing Computer Algorithm
Researchers at the University of Illinois have proposed a computer algorithm that could ease congressional districting and make the process fairer for constituents.
From ACM TechNews
Connecting Up the Global Quantum Internet
Researchers say they have taken a major step in building the practical components of a global quantum Internet.
From ACM News
Back to Saturn? Five Missions Proposed to Follow Cassini
For 13 years, NASA's Cassini spacecraft sent back captivating observations of Saturn, and its rings and moons, solving some mysteries but raising plenty of new questions. With the spacecraft's demise on Friday, the stream of …
From ACM News
Wanna Stop Distracted Driving? Make Cars That Watch Their Humans
Everyone knows that distracted driving is a problem, but it tends to fall in the "other people/not me" category of personal risk assessment among drivers.
From ACM News
Artificial Intelligence Pioneer Says We Need to Start Over
Hinton suggested that, to get to where neural networks are able to become intelligent on their own, "I suspect that means getting rid of back-propagation."
From ACM News
Robot Made from a Dna Strand Could Deliver Cargo in Your Blood
You won't read about a smaller robot than this one any time soon. It consists of just a single strand of DNA, and moves by taking tiny 6-nanometre steps—around a hundred-millionth the size of a human step.
From ACM News
Brain-Machine Interface Isn't Sci-Fi Anymore
Thomas Reardon puts a terrycloth stretch band with microchips and electrodes woven into the fabric—a steampunk version of jewelry—on each of his forearms.
From ACM News
Treating Cancer, Stopping Violence . . . How AI Protects US
For some, the spread of artificial intelligence and robotics poses a threat to our privacy, our jobs – even our safety, as more and more tasks are handed over to silicon-based brains.
From ACM TechNews
No Strings Attached For Underwater Video System
Researchers in Saudi Arabia say they have developed a flexible underwater wireless video system.
From ACM TechNews
Fitness Trackers Could Benefit From Better Security
A security analysis of two wearable fitness trackers revealed a technique for intercepting messages transmitted between the trackers and cloud servers.
From ACM TechNews
To Improve Smartphone Privacy, Control Access to Third-Party Libraries
Researchers suggest controlling access to third-party libraries will help limit the undesired exposure of personal information by smartphone applications.
From ACM TechNews
Computational Tool Recognizes Filamentary Sections of Neurons and Blood Vessels
Researchers in Singapore have developed a computational tool for faster and more reliable screening and diagnosis of vascular and neurological conditions.
From ACM TechNews
IBM Makes Breakthrough in Race to Commercialize Quantum Computers
Recent experiments utilized a method that could enable quantum computers to perform calculations beyond the capabilities of today's most powerful supercomputers.
From ACM News
Cassini Crashes Into Saturn but Could Still Deliver Big Discoveries
At 4:55 a.m. California time on 15 September, hundreds of scientists watched their life's work go up in flames.
From ACM News
U.s. Moves to Ban Kaspersky Software in Federal Agencies Amid Concerns of Russian Espionage
The U.S. government on Wednesday moved to ban the use of a Russian brand of security software by federal agencies amid concerns the company has ties to state-sponsored cyberespionage activities.
From ACM News
Spies in Our Pockets
Electronic eavesdropping is becoming ever more nefarious in the age of smartphones and digital devices.
From ACM TechNews
First On-Chip Nanoscale Optical Quantum Memory Developed
Researchers say they have developed the first computer chip with nanoscale optical quantum memory.
From ACM TechNews
Improving Web Security Without Sacrificing Performance
Researchers have developed a programming tool enabling high-performance cryptographic code to be verifiably correct and secure.
From ACM TechNews
Brain-Computer Interfaces Are Already Here
A growing number of organizations are attempting to make thought-controlled sense, control, communication, and action a reality by developing brain-computer interfaces.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Devise Hopeful Defense Against Credential Spear-Phishing Attacks
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and collaborators have proposed a method for detecting credential spear-phishing attacks.
From ACM News
Cassini Spacecraft Makes Its Final Approach to Saturn
NASA's Cassini spacecraft is on final approach to Saturn, following confirmation by mission navigators that it is on course to dive into the planet's atmosphere on Friday, Sept. 15.
From ACM News
Global Fingerprints of Sea-Level Rise Revealed By Satellites
As an ice sheet melts, it leaves a unique signature behind. Complex geological processes distribute the meltwater in a distinct pattern, or 'fingerprint', that causes seas to rise unevenly around the world. Now, for the first…
From ACM News
How Apple Is Bringing US Into the Age of Facial Recognition Whether We're Ready or Not
A whiff of dystopian creepiness has long wafted in the air whenever facial recognition has come up. Books, movies and television shows have portrayed the technology as mainly a tool of surveillance and social control—aimed by…
From ACM Opinion
Why Google's AI Can Write Beautiful Songs but Still Can't Tell a Joke
Creating noodling piano tunes and endless configurations of cat drawings with AI may not sound like an obvious project for Google, but it makes a lot of sense to Douglas Eck.
From ACM TechNews
Julia Joins Petaflop Club
The open source Julia programming language has been admitted into the "Petaflop Club."
From ACM TechNews
High-Speed Quantum Memory For Photons
A new memory technology can store photons in a rubidium atomic vapor and read them out again later without significantly altering their quantum mechanical properties.
From ACM TechNews
Brain Composer: 'thinking' Melodies Onto a Musical Score
P300 is a new brain-computer interface application that enables music to be composed by thought.
From ACM TechNews
Voting-Roll Vulnerability
It is relatively easy for hackers to buy enough personal information to potentially rig online voter registration information in as many as 35 states and Washington, D.C.