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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.


Neuroscientists Rethink How the Brain Recognizes Faces
From ACM News

Neuroscientists Rethink How the Brain Recognizes Faces

People can pick a familiar face out of a crowd without thinking too much about it. But how the brain actually does this has eluded researchers for years.

Mummy Dna ­nravels Ancient Egyptians' Ancestry
From ACM News

Mummy Dna ­nravels Ancient Egyptians' Ancestry

The tombs of ancient Egypt have yielded golden collars and ivory bracelets, but another treasure—human DNA—has proved elusive.

Software Simplified
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.

Earth-Observing Companies Push For More-Advanced Science Satellites
From ACM Careers

Earth-Observing Companies Push For More-Advanced Science Satellites

Never have so many private eyes looked down at Earth.

Satellite Images Reveal Gaps in Global Population Data
From ACM News

Satellite Images Reveal Gaps in Global Population Data

Nigerian health officials won't have to rely on flawed, decade-old census data when they plan deliveries of the measles vaccine next year.

Pocket Laboratories
From ACM News

Pocket Laboratories

As spring turns to summer along the east coast of the United States, thoughts turn to holidays, beaches, picnics—and mosquitoes.

The Shock Tactics Set to Shake ­p Immunology
From ACM News

The Shock Tactics Set to Shake ­p Immunology

Six times a day, Katrin pauses whatever she's doing, removes a small magnet from her pocket and touches it to a raised patch of skin just below her collar bone....

Dna's Secret Weapon Against Knots and Tangles
From ACM News

Dna's Secret Weapon Against Knots and Tangles

Leonid Mirny swivels in his office chair and grabs the power cord for his laptop.

Mobile-Phone Signals Bolster Street-Level Rain Forecasts
From ACM News

Mobile-Phone Signals Bolster Street-Level Rain Forecasts

Meteorologists have long struggled to forecast storms and flooding at the level of streets and neighborhoods, but they may soon make headway thanks to the spread...

23andme Given Green Light to Sell Dna Tests For 10 Diseases
From ACM News

23andme Given Green Light to Sell Dna Tests For 10 Diseases

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first at-home genetic test that can help to determine a person's risk of developing certain diseases....

Machine Learning Predicts the Look of STEM Cells
From ACM News

Machine Learning Predicts the Look of STEM Cells

No two stem cells are identical, even if they are genetic clones.

The Diy Electronics Transforming Research
From ACM Careers

The Diy Electronics Transforming Research

A research subject watches a brush slowly stroking a rubber hand on a table in front of her, while her own hand—hidden from view—experiences the same stimulation...

How to Hunt For a Black Hole with a Telescope the Size of Earth
From ACM News

How to Hunt For a Black Hole with a Telescope the Size of Earth

Here's how to catch a black hole. First, spend many years enlisting eight of the top radio observatories across four continents to join forces for an unprecedented...

Mathematicians Create Warped Worlds in Virtual Reality
From ACM News

Mathematicians Create Warped Worlds in Virtual Reality

"It feels like the entire universe is within a sphere that is maybe within a couple metres' radius," says topologist Henry Segerman at Oklahoma State University...

Synthetic Yeast Chromosomes Help Probe Mysteries of Evolution
From ACM News

Synthetic Yeast Chromosomes Help Probe Mysteries of Evolution

Evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould once pondered what would happen if the cassette "tape of life" were rewound and played again.

The Quest to Crystallize Time
From ACM News

The Quest to Crystallize Time

Christopher Monroe spends his life poking at atoms with light.

Magnetic Hard Drives Go Atomic
From ACM News

Magnetic Hard Drives Go Atomic

Chop a magnet in two, and it becomes two smaller magnets.

Quantum Microscope Offers Mri For Molecules
From ACM News

Quantum Microscope Offers Mri For Molecules

A quantum microscope that uses a sensor built from diamonds could allow researchers to study such nanoscale mysteries as how DNA folds in a cell, why drugs work...

How Rival Bots Battled Their Way to Poker Supremacy
From ACM News

How Rival Bots Battled Their Way to Poker Supremacy

A complex variant of poker is the latest game to be mastered by artificial intelligence (AI). And it has been conquered not once, but twice, by two rival bots developed...

How Bioinformatics Tools Are Bringing Genetic Analysis to the Masses
From ACM News

How Bioinformatics Tools Are Bringing Genetic Analysis to the Masses

For doctors trying to treat people who have symptoms that have no clear cause, gene-sequencing technologies might help in pointing them to a diagnosis. But the...
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