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An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.


Distant Planet Weighed ­sing Clues from Starlight
From ACM News

Distant Planet Weighed ­sing Clues from Starlight

Researchers have weighed a planet orbiting a distant star by measuring the starlight passing through its atmosphere.

Nasa's Chief Scientist on Mars, Moons, and Money
From ACM Opinion

Nasa's Chief Scientist on Mars, Moons, and Money

Planetary geologist Ellen Stofan joined NASA in August as the agency's chief scientist, an overarching role in which she advises on the science of all NASA programmes...

Simulations Back Up Theory That Universe Is a Hologram
From ACM News

Simulations Back Up Theory That Universe Is a Hologram

A team of physicists has provided some of the clearest evidence yet that our Universe could be just one big projection.

Graphene: The Quest For Supercarbon
From ACM News

Graphene: The Quest For Supercarbon

Mr G gazes out from a recruitment poster hanging in an engineering building in Cambridge, U.K.

Physicists Plan to Build a Bigger Lhc
From ACM News

Physicists Plan to Build a Bigger Lhc

When Europe's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) started up in 2008, particle physicists would not have dreamt of asking for something bigger until they got their US$5...

Genome Hacker ­ncovers Largest-Ever Family Tree
From ACM News

Genome Hacker ­ncovers Largest-Ever Family Tree

Using data pulled from online genealogy sites, a renowned 'genome hacker' has constructed what is likely the biggest family trees ever assembled.

Brain Decoding: Reading Minds
From ACM News

Brain Decoding: Reading Minds

Jack Gallant perches on the edge of a swivel chair in his lab at the University of California, Berkeley, fixated on the screen of a computer that is trying to decode...

Nasa Missions Struggle to Cope with Shutdown
From ACM News

Nasa Missions Struggle to Cope with Shutdown

All it took was four minutes.

Researchers Split Over NSA Hacking
From ACM Careers

Researchers Split Over NSA Hacking

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has upset a great many people this year.

Formula Predicts Research Papers' Future Citations
From ACM News

Formula Predicts Research Papers' Future Citations

It sounds like a science administrator’s dream—or a scientist's worst nightmare: a formula that predicts how often research papers will be cited.

Did a Hyper-Black Hole Spawn the ­niverse?
From ACM News

Did a Hyper-Black Hole Spawn the ­niverse?

It could be time to bid the Big Bang bye-bye. Cosmologists have speculated that the Universe formed from the debris ejected when a four-dimensional star collapsed...

Gaming Improves Multitasking Skills
From ACM News

Gaming Improves Multitasking Skills

Sixty-five-year-old Ann Linsey was starting to worry about how easily she got distracted from whatever she was doing.

Quantum Paradox Seen in Diamond
From ACM News

Quantum Paradox Seen in Diamond

A quantum effect named after an ancient Greek puzzle has been observed in diamond, paving the way for the use of diamond crystals in quantum computer chips.

­.s. Brain Project Puts Focus on Ethics
From ACM Careers

­.s. Brain Project Puts Focus on Ethics

The false mouse memories made the ethicists uneasy. By stimulating certain neurons in the hippocampus, Susumu Tonegawa and his colleagues caused mice to recall...

Exotic Optics: Metamaterial World
From ACM News

Exotic Optics: Metamaterial World

Tom Driscoll would be happy if he never heard the phrase "Harry Potter-style invisibility cloak" again.

Father's Genetic Quest Pays Off
From ACM News

Father's Genetic Quest Pays Off

Hugh Rienhoff says that his nine-year-old daughter, Bea, is "a fire cracker", "a tomboy" and "a very sassy, impudent girl". But in a forthcoming research paper,...

Drones in Science: Fly, and Bring Me Data
From ACM News

Drones in Science: Fly, and Bring Me Data

The Tempest—wingspan 3.2 metres, cruising speed 75 knots—was designed to fly into severe storms.

Computer Memory Can Be Read with a Flash of Light
From ACM News

Computer Memory Can Be Read with a Flash of Light

Modern computer-memory technologies come with a trade-off. There is speedy but short-term storage for on-the-fly processing—random-access memory, or RAM—and slow...

Neuroprosthetics: Once More, With Feeling
From ACM News

Neuroprosthetics: Once More, With Feeling

Sitting motionless in her wheelchair, paralysed from the neck down by a stroke, Cathy Hutchinson seems to take no notice of the cable rising from the top of her...

Diamond Shows Promise For Quantum Internet
From ACM News

Diamond Shows Promise For Quantum Internet

Today's Internet runs on linked silicon chips, but a future quantum version might be built from diamond crystals.
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