Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
May 2017
From ACM News
Software Simplified
In 2015, geneticist Guy Reeves was trying to configure a free software system called Galaxy to get his bioinformatics projects off the ground.
From ACM News
Cassini Finds Saturn Moon May Have Tipped Over
Saturn's icy, ocean-bearing moon Enceladus may have tipped over in the distant past, according to recent research from NASA's Cassini mission.
From ACM News
How a Supreme Court Ruling on Printer Cartridges Changes What It Means to Buy Almost Anything
Last week, the Supreme Court dealt a major blow to corporations that try to use patent law as a weapon against other firms, saying that companies can only be sued for patent infringement in the places they actually do business…
From ACM TechNews
Here's How to Track the Smartphone Apps That Are Tracking You
Two complementary research projects plan to cooperate further to help smartphone users monitor how apps handle their personally identifiable information.
From ACM TechNews
Faster, More Nimble Drones on the Horizon
Researchers have developed an algorithm to tune a Dynamic Vision Sensor camera to detect only specific changes in brightness that matter for a particular system.
From ACM TechNews
A New Spin on Electronics
Researchers at the University of Utah found perovskites permit easily controllable electron spin and have a sufficiently long spin lifetime to transport information.
From ACM TechNews
Shedding Light on How Humans Walk…with Robots
Researchers have discovered that humans whose lower limbs are fastened to a typical clinical robot only modify their gait if the forces the robot applies threaten their walking ability.
From ACM TechNews
A Network of Crystals For Long-Distance Quantum Communication
Researchers have demonstrated a protocol for long-distance quantum communication using a network of crystals.
From ACM TechNews
Google Deepmind's Alphago Is Retiring After Beating the World's Best Human Players
Google's DeepMind unit has announced the retirement of its AlphaGo software after it won a three-game match against Chinese Go champion Ke Jie.
From ACM News
High-Silica 'halos' Shed Light on Wet Ancient Mars
Pale "halos" around fractures in bedrock analyzed by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover contain copious silica, indicating that ancient Mars had liquid water for a long time.
From ACM Careers
Is China Outsmarting America in A.i.?
Sören Schwertfeger finished his postdoctorate research on autonomous robots in Germany, and seemed set to go to Europe or the United States, where artificial intelligence was pioneered and established.
From ACM News
New Scaling Law Predicts How Wheels Drive Over Sand
When engineers design a new aircraft, they carry out much of the initial testing not on full-sized jets but on model planes that have been scaled down to fit inside a wind tunnel.
From ACM News
Heads p: Augmented Reality Prepares For the Battlefield
At last week's Pentagon Lab Day in Washington, DC, the Army's Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) and Army Research Lab demonstrated a prototype of technology straight out of first…
From ACM News
Russian Hackers Are sing 'tainted' Leaks to Sow Disinformation
Over the past year, the Kremlin's strategy of weaponizing leaks to meddle with democracies around the world has become increasingly clear, first in the US and more recently in France.
From ACM News
What Self-Driving Cars See
Giant tech companies are fighting over the technology in court. Start-ups around the world are racing to develop new versions of it. And engineers say it is essential to making autonomous cars safe.
From ACM TechNews
Russian Researchers Claim First Quantum-Safe Blockchain
The Russian Quantum Center announced the creation of the first quantum-safe blockchain for securing cryptocurrencies and classified government communications and other sensitive digital transactions.
From ACM TechNews
Waltzing Robot Teaches Beginners How to Dance Like a Pro
Researchers at Tohoku University in Japan have developed a robotic dance instructor.
From ACM TechNews
Nsa Says New Encryption Standards Needed to Resist Quantum Computing
The U.S. National Security Agency is developing encryption standards to withstand quantum computing.
From ACM TechNews
Toward Mass-Producible Quantum Computers
Researchers have developed a new method that could help lead to the development of practical, diamond-based quantum computing devices.
From ACM TechNews
Google Plans to Demonstrate the Supremacy of Quantum Computing
Google researchers say they plan to demonstrate "quantum supremacy" by year's end.
From ACM News
When Hatred Goes Viral: Inside Social Media's Efforts to Combat Terrorism
On New Year's Eve in 2015 local and federal agents arrested a 26-year-old man in Rochester, N.Y., for planning to attack people at random later that night using knives and a machete.
From ACM News
A Whole New Jupiter: First Science Results from Nasa's Juno Mission
Early science results from NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter portray the largest planet in our solar system as a complex, gigantic, turbulent world, with Earth-sized polar cyclones, plunging storm systems that travel deep into the…
From ACM News
That Time the Soviets Bugged Congress, and Other Spy Tales
During a private meeting in the Oval Office earlier this month, President Donald Trump is understood to have disclosed highly classified intelligence to two senior Russian diplomats.
From ACM TechNews
How to Prevent 3D Printing Hacks? Install Secret Flaws and Share the Decoder Ring
Researchers say they have developed techniques manufacturers can use to thwart intellectual property thieves.
From ACM TechNews
iuc Gets $100k Grant For Supporting Women in Computer Science
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recently received the $100,000 grand prize of the National Center for Women in Information Technology NEXT Award.
From ACM TechNews
Emojis: How We Assign Meaning to These Ever-Popular Symbols
Researchers have analyzed the use of emojis by 1 million users via more than 1.2 billion messages.
From ACM TechNews
Stanford Scholars, Researchers Discuss Key Ethical Questions Self-Driving Cars Present
Stanford University scholars discuss the challenging ethical ramifications of driverless vehicles.
From ACM News
Lawmakers Seek to Expand Repair Options
End-users want to be able to repair their expensive electronics; manufacturers disagree.
From ACM News
Detecting Life In Space: The Red Edge
The universe's "most interesting star" just started acting up again.
From ACM Careers
Silicon Valley's Big Three vs. Detroit's Golden-Age Big Three
Over the last 20 years, the technology industry has become the most powerful industry in the world, boasting seven of the 20 most profitable companies.