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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.


Complexity Theory's 50-Year Journey to the Limits of Knowledge
From ACM News

Complexity Theory's 50-Year Journey to the Limits of Knowledge

How hard is it to prove that problems are hard to solve? Meta-complexity theorists have been asking questions like this for decades. A string of recent results...

How Randomness Improves Algorithms
From ACM News

How Randomness Improves Algorithms

Unpredictability can help computer scientists solve otherwise intractable problems.

Computer Science Proof Unveils Unexpected Form of Entanglement
From ACM News

Computer Science Proof Unveils Unexpected Form of Entanglement

Three computer scientists have solved the NLTS conjecture, proving that systems of entangled particles can remain difficult to analyze even away from extremes. ...

Galactic Beacons Get Snuffed Out in a Cosmic Eyeblink
From ACM News

Galactic Beacons Get Snuffed Out in a Cosmic Eyeblink

Stephanie LaMassa did a double take. She was staring at two images on her computer screen, both of the same object—except they looked nothing alike.

Astronomers Creep ­p to the Edge of the Milky Way's Black Hole
From ACM News

Astronomers Creep ­p to the Edge of the Milky Way's Black Hole

For the first time, scientists have spotted something wobbling around the black hole at the core of our galaxy.

'Quantum Atmospheres' May Reveal Secrets of Matter
From ACM News

'Quantum Atmospheres' May Reveal Secrets of Matter

Over the past several years, some materials have proved to be a playground for physicists.

New AI Strategy Mimics How Brains Learn to Smell
From ACM News

New AI Strategy Mimics How Brains Learn to Smell

Today's artificial intelligence systems, including the artificial neural networks broadly inspired by the neurons and connections of the nervous system, perform...

The Last of the Universe's Ordinary Matter Has Been Found
From ACM News

The Last of the Universe's Ordinary Matter Has Been Found

Astronomers have finally found the last of the missing universe. It's been hiding since the mid-1990s, when researchers decided to inventory all the "ordinary" matter...

The New Science of Seeing Around Corners
From ACM News

The New Science of Seeing Around Corners

While vacationing on the coast of Spain in 2012, the computer vision scientist Antonio Torralba noticed stray shadows on the wall of his hotel room that didn't...

­niversal Method to Sort Complex Information Found
From ACM TechNews

­niversal Method to Sort Complex Information Found

A multi-institution team of computer scientists has clarified the first general-purpose method of solving nearest neighbor question for complex data.

A Poet of Computation Who ­ncovers Distant Truths
From ACM News

A Poet of Computation Who ­ncovers Distant Truths

The theoretical computer scientist Constantinos Daskalakis has won the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize for explicating core questions in game theory and machine learning....

Mathematicians Tame Turbulence in Flattened Fluids
From ACM News

Mathematicians Tame Turbulence in Flattened Fluids

Turbulence, the splintering of smooth streams of fluid into chaotic vortices, doesn't just make for bumpy plane rides. It also throws a wrench into the very mathematics...

Finally, a Problem That Only Quantum Computers Will Ever Be Able to Solve
From ACM News

Finally, a Problem That Only Quantum Computers Will Ever Be Able to Solve

Early on in the study of quantum computers, computer scientists posed a question whose answer, they knew, would reveal something deep about the power of these futuristic...

The ­niverse Is Not a Simulation, but We Can Now Simulate It
From ACM News

The ­niverse Is Not a Simulation, but We Can Now Simulate It

In the early 2000s, a small community of coder-cosmologists set out to simulate the 14-billion-year history of the universe on a supercomputer.

Evidence Found for a New Fundamental Particle
From ACM News

Evidence Found for a New Fundamental Particle

Physicists are both thrilled and baffled by a new report from a neutrino experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago.

A New World's Extraordinary Orbit Points to Planet Nine
From ACM News

A New World's Extraordinary Orbit Points to Planet Nine

In early 2016, two planetary scientists declared that a ghost planet is hiding in the depths of the solar system, well beyond the orbit of Pluto.

Machine Learning's 'Amazing' Ability to Predict Chaos
From ACM News

Machine Learning's 'Amazing' Ability to Predict Chaos

Half a century ago, the pioneers of chaos theory discovered that the "butterfly effect" makes long-term prediction impossible.

The Era of Quantum Computing Is Here. Outlook: Cloudy
From ACM News

The Era of Quantum Computing Is Here. Outlook: Cloudy

After decades of heavy slog with no promise of success, quantum computing is suddenly buzzing with almost feverish excitement and activity.

Mathematicians Find Wrinkle in Famed Fluid Equations
From ACM News

Mathematicians Find Wrinkle in Famed Fluid Equations

The Navier-Stokes equations capture in a few succinct terms one of the most ubiquitous features of the physical world: the flow of fluids.

Newfound Wormhole Allows Information to Escape Black Holes
From ACM News

Newfound Wormhole Allows Information to Escape Black Holes

In 1985, when Carl Sagan was writing the novel Contact, he needed to quickly transport his protagonist Dr. Ellie Arroway from Earth to the star Vega. He had her...
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