Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2016
From ACM News
Scientists Decode Brain Signals Nearly at Speed of Perception
Using electrodes implanted in the temporal lobes of awake patients, scientists have decoded brain signals at nearly the speed of perception.
From ACM News
New Animation Takes a Colorful Flight Over Ceres
A colorful new animation shows a simulated flight over the surface of dwarf planet Ceres, based on images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft.
From ACM News
Babylonian Astronomers sed Geometry to Track Jupiter
A reanalysis of markings on Babylonian tablets has revealed that astronomers working between the fourth and first centuries bc used geometry to calculate the motions of Jupiter—a conceptual leap that historians thought had not…
From ACM TechNews
Are We Thinking About Artificial Intelligence All Wrong?
Computer scientist and author Jerry Kaplan contends a rethink of artificial intelligence may be necessary.
From ACM TechNews
Companies Find Tech Talent in Robust Freelance Market
Companies are turning to private marketplaces of software developers to assemble teams for specific projects, rather than hiring permanent personnel.
From ACM TechNews
Alphabet Program Beats the European Human Go Champion
The AlphaGo program beat European Go champion Fan Hui in a series of five matches and achieved a 99.8-percent winning rate against other Go programs.
From ACM TechNews
Recognizing Correct Code
A new machine-learning system can analyze repairs made to open source programs, learn their general properties, and produce new repairs for other programs.
From ACM TechNews
Csi: Cyberattack Scene Investigation--a Malware Whodunit
Forensic probes of cyberattacks can uncover their modus operandi and severity, but finding perpetrators is a difficult proposition.
From ACM News
Nsa Hacker Chief Explains How to Keep Him Out of Your System
It was the talk most anticipated at this year's inaugural Usenix Enigma security conference in San Francisco and one that even the other speakers were eager to hear.
From ACM News
The Top Technews Stories of 2015
ACM sent more than 1,800 news abstracts to around 100,000 of its members last year via email, in the form of TechNews.
From ACM News
Massive Space Telescope Is Finally Coming Together
This week, NASA is set to reach a milestone on one of its most ambitious projects. If all goes to plan, workers will finish assembling the huge mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope—an $8 billion successor to the famous Hubble…
From ACM News
Glowing 4d-Printed Flowers Could Pave Way For Replacement Organs
This delicate, glowing flower could one day save your life. It’s the latest example of "4D printing"–3D printed objects that change their shape over time—and it can move in a way that mimics natural processes.
From ACM News
Google AI Algorithm Masters Ancient Game of Go
A computer has beaten a human professional for the first time at Go—an ancient board game that has long been viewed as one of the greatest challenges for artificial intelligence (AI).
From ACM TechNews
The Neural Network That Remembers
A recurrent neural network developed at the University of California, San Diego can mine patterns in reviews and write its own contextually relevant reviews.
From ACM TechNews
Living in the '90s? So Are nderwater Wireless Networks
The speed of today's underwater communication networks is comparable to the sluggish dial-up modems from 1990s.
From ACM TechNews
Ndsu Research Could Change Wind Power Grid
North Dakota State University researchers are exploring the possibility of using direct current wind power grids.
From ACM TechNews
Future Delivery Drones Start Learning How to Fly on Their Own
Boston University researchers are developing ways to enable drones to learn how to fly on their own.
From ACM News
Cern Engineers Have to Identify and Disconnect 9,000 Obsolete Cables
In the past, when parts of the accelerators have been upgraded or added to, engineers would often additionally replace the cables that connected them.
From ACM News
Is Blockchain the Most Important It Invention of Our Age?
There are not many occasions when one can give an unqualified thumbs-up to something the government does, but this is one such occasion.
From ACM News
A Bright Approach to Brain Implants
The brain was once considered a "black box," a device so mysterious that you could only guess what it was doing by observing human behavior.
From ACM Opinion
Go Players React to Computer Defeat
For decades, the ancient game of Go has stood out as the one board game that computers couldn't crack.
From ACM TechNews
Wee Archie: Digital Dinos Put Bite-Sized Supercomputer Through Its Paces
University of Edinburgh researchers have developed Wee ARCHIE, a miniature supercomputer that powers virtual dinosaur races.
From ACM TechNews
Mechanical Quanta See the Light
Researchers say they have taken a first step toward a universal quantum connection based on a nanomechanical device's quantum-mechanical vibrations.
From ACM TechNews
Scenic Sat-Nav Will Take You on the Prettiest Route
Autobahn is an artificial intelligence system that can use Google Street View images to optimize a driving route for a particular type of scenery.
From ACM TechNews
Who Needs a Computer Science Degree These Days?
An increasing number of software developers are entering the job market lacking degree-level training, according to a VisionMobile survey.
From ACM TechNews
Wanted: Agile Robots
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology plans a contest to make robots more agile, removing "a major obstacle" to their adoption by manufacturers.
From ACM TechNews
If Killer Robots Arrive, the Terminator Will Be the Least of Our Problems
Experts warned of the threat of autonomous weaponry at last week's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
From ACM News
In Memoriam: Marvin Minsky 1927-2016
A pioneer in artificial intelligence, Minsky's impact was enormous.
From ACM News
Next Big Test For Ai: Making Sense of the World
A few years ago, a breakthrough in machine learning suddenly enabled computers to recognize objects shown in photographs with unprecedented—almost spooky—accuracy.
From ACM News
That 'gut Feeling' Can Now Be Measured
The next generation of multi-purpose ingestible technologies is emerging in proof-of-concept studies.