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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.


The Search For Life on Mars Is About to Get Weird
From ACM News

The Search For Life on Mars Is About to Get Weird

Since the dawn of the space age NASA and other agencies have spent billions of dollars to reconnoiter Mars—assailing it with spacecraft flybys, photo-snapping orbiters...

Observatories Combine to Crack Open the Crab Nebula
From ACM News

Observatories Combine to Crack Open the Crab Nebula

Astronomers have produced a highly detailed image of the Crab Nebula, by combining data from telescopes spanning nearly the entire breadth of the electromagnetic...

The Harmony That Keeps Trappist-1's 7 Earth-Size Worlds From Colliding
From ACM News

The Harmony That Keeps Trappist-1's 7 Earth-Size Worlds From Colliding

In February, astronomers announced the discovery of a nearby star with seven Earth-size planets, and at least some of the planets seemed to be in a zone that could...

The Finesse of Flying Cassini Between Saturn's Rings
From ACM News

The Finesse of Flying Cassini Between Saturn's Rings

The Cassini space probe is going to dive through Saturn's rings again on Wednesday, the third of a planned 22 orbits threading that planetary needle as the probe...

Teaching Robots to Teach Other Robots
From ACM News

Teaching Robots to Teach Other Robots

Most robots are programmed using one of two methods: learning from demonstration, in which they watch a task being done and then replicate it, or via motion-planning...

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.

Geniuses Wanted: Nasa Challenges Coders to Speed ­p Its Supercomputer
From ACM News

Geniuses Wanted: Nasa Challenges Coders to Speed ­p Its Supercomputer

To improve the performance of one of the world's biggest supercomputers, NASA is crowdsourcing some new ideas about an old coding language. And there are cash prizes...

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.

Nasa Rover Samples Active Linear Dune on Mars
From ACM News

Nasa Rover Samples Active Linear Dune on Mars

As it drives uphill from a band of rippled sand dunes, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is toting a fistful of dark sand for onboard analysis that will complete the...

Does My Algorithm Work? There's No Shortcut For Community Detection
From ACM TechNews

Does My Algorithm Work? There's No Shortcut For Community Detection

New research questions the validity of the community-detection algorithm testing model.

In Memoriam Harry D. Huskey 1916-2017
From ACM News

In Memoriam Harry D. Huskey 1916-2017

Huskey's work included building innovative hardware and novel software, and educating computer scientists worldwide. 

Planetariums, Not Just For Kids
From ACM News

Planetariums, Not Just For Kids

Most researchers think of planetariums, if they think of them at all, as a place to take schoolchildren for whizzy trips through the stars, with nothing to offer...

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....

How to Prepare For an Automated Future
From ACM Careers

How to Prepare For an Automated Future

We don't know how quickly machines will displace people's jobs, or how many they'll take, but we know it's happening—not just to factory workers but also to ...

$3.1 Million Grant to Build New Data Exploration Software
From ACM TechNews

$3.1 Million Grant to Build New Data Exploration Software

Researchers will use a $3.1-million grant to develop software that brings statistical rigor to interactive data exploration.

New Movie Shows Cassini's First Dive Over Saturn
From ACM News

New Movie Shows Cassini's First Dive Over Saturn

A new movie sequence of images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows the view as the spacecraft swooped over Saturn during the first of its Grand Finale dives between...

Sent to Prison By a Software Program's Secret Algorithms
From ACM News

Sent to Prison By a Software Program's Secret Algorithms

When Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. visited Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute last month, he was asked a startling question, one with overtones of science fiction...

Watch Hackers Sabotage an Industrial Robot Arm
From ACM News

Watch Hackers Sabotage an Industrial Robot Arm

When the cybersecurity industry warns of digital threats to the "internet of things," the targets that come to mind are ill-conceived, insecure consumer products...

Study Finds Gender Bias in Open Source Programming
From ACM TechNews

Study Finds Gender Bias in Open Source Programming

Women's contributions in open source software communities tend to be accepted more often than men's in general, but they are rejected more frequently when a woman's...

The AI Revolution Is Making Game Characters Move More Realistically
From ACM News

The AI Revolution Is Making Game Characters Move More Realistically

When we talk about artificial intelligence in games, we usually picture smarter or more realistic enemies that don't come off as mindless automatons.
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