Communications of the ACM
A Healthy Dose of AI
Building artificial intelligence into medical devices can speed diagnoses and potentially improve treatments and outcomes.
From ACM NewsAn edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.
From ACM TechNews
'Punch-Card' DNA Could Mean Cheaper High-Capacity Data Storage
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers have proposed an alternative to custom-synthesizing DNA for high-capacity data storage.
From ACM TechNews
Can We Identify Invasive Species Before They Invade?
Researchers have developed models for predicting patterns of damage by invasive insects that attack North American trees.
From ACM TechNews
Faced with Data Deluge, Astronomers Turn to Automation
Researchers hope to use algorithms to improve multimessenger astronomy.
From ACM News
Machines That Read Your Brain Waves
Sometimes a technology that's been simmering in the laboratory or the clinic for decades makes the leap to mainstream consumption almost overnight.
From ACM TechNews
How Smarter Technology Will Feed the Planet
Technology solutions increasingly are being employed to enable more efficient and intelligent agriculture.
From ACM News
Are Cyborg Warriors a Good Idea?
You already have a lot to worry about. Climate change, fake news, inequality, the stability of democracy. But I feel obliged to point out yet another threat: soldiers...
From ACM News
Getting the Dirt on Creation, Inside OSIRIS-REx's First Close Look at Bennu
Last week at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) the science team of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission presented their first findings from the asteroid...
From ACM TechNews
Computers Determine States of Consciousness
A new algorithm can distinguish between unresponsive wakefulness syndrome and a minimally conscious state through the use of electroencephalographic brainwave...
From ACM TechNews
'Superhuman' AI Triumphs Playing the Toughest Board Games
DeepMind's self-learning AlphaZero algorithm has demonstrated superhuman success at complex board games including chess, shogi, and go.
From ACM News
Finding Alien Life May Require Giant Telescopes Built in Orbit
After snapping the final piece into place with a satisfying "click" she feels through her spacesuit gloves, the astronaut pauses to appreciate the view.
From ACM News
Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Moving Parts
Behind a thin white veil separating his makeshift lab from joggers at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology indoor track, aerospace engineer Steven Barrett recently...
From ACM News
Will NASA's Next Mission to Venus Be a Balloon?
After decades of neglect, hellish and cloud-enveloped Venus—sometimes called Earth's evil twin—is a world ready and waiting for renewed exploration.
From ACM News
Artificial Intelligence Is Learning to Keep Learning
What if you stopped learning after graduation? It sounds stultifying, but that is how most machine-learning systems are trained.
From ACM News
What Does a Crooked Election Look Like?
For voters around the world, including the millions of Americans who will cast ballots in the midterms up to and on November 6, an election is democracy in action—an...
From ACM News
'Optical Tweezers' and Tools sed for Laser Eye Surgery Snag Physics Nobel
Optical physicists Arthur Ashkin, Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland have won this year's Nobel Prize in Physics for "groundbreaking inventions in the field of...
From ACM News
New AI System Can Imagine What It Hasn't Seen
"Before we work on artificial intelligence, why don't we do something about natural stupidity?" computer scientist Steve Polyak once joked.
From ACM TechNews
How Close Are We, Really, to Building a Quantum Computer?
Intel Labs' Jim Clarke observes that the race to develop the first practical quantum computer is fraught with challenges.
From ACM Opinion
How Close Are We, Really, to Building a Quantum Computer?
The race is on to build the world's first meaningful quantum computer—one that can deliver the technology's long-promised ability to help scientists do things like...
From ACM Careers
The Most Important Inventor You've Never Heard Of
When The Economist called Stanford Ovshinsky "the Edison of our age," the name might have been unfamiliar to most people, but the comparison was apt.
From ACM News