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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.


From ACM News

Physicists Create a Working Transistor From a Single Atom

Australian and American physicists have built a working transistor from a single phosphorus atom embedded in a silicon crystal.

Microchips' Optical Future
From ACM News

Microchips' Optical Future

To keep energy consumption under control, future chips may need to move data using light instead of electricity—and the technical expertise to build them may reside...

Ultrafast Trades Trigger Black Swan Events Every Day, Say Econophysicists
From ACM News

Ultrafast Trades Trigger Black Swan Events Every Day, Say Econophysicists

On 6 May 2010, shares on U.S. financial markets suddenly dropped on average by around 10% but in over 300 stocks by more than 60%. Moments later the prices recovered...

From ACM News

How Networks of Biological Cells Solve Distributed Computing Problems

Distributed computing is all the rage these days. The idea is to break down computational tasks into convenient chunks and distribute them across a network to a...

Darpa Dodges Obama Budget Death Ray, Keeps Its $2.8 Billion
From ACM News

Darpa Dodges Obama Budget Death Ray, Keeps Its $2.8 Billion

For most of the U.S. military's far-flung community of scientists and engineers, Monday was a day to pop a Xanax.

Turing's Enduring Importance
From ACM News

Turing's Enduring Importance

When Alan Turing was born 100 years ago, on June 23, 1912, a computer was not a thing—it was a person.

Texas Jury Strikes Down Patent Troll
From ACM News

Texas Jury Strikes Down Patent Troll

After threatening web companies for more than a decade, Michael Doyle and his patent-holding company Eolas Technologies—named after the Irish word for knowledge—may...

From ACM News

Let the Robot Drive: The Autonomous Car of the Future Is Here

The object, vaguely pink, sits on the shoulder of the freeway, slowly shimmering into view. Is it roadkill? A weird kind of sagebrush? No, wait, it's … a puffy...

Google Unveils 'secret Lab' For Radical Ideas
From ACM TechNews

Google Unveils 'secret Lab' For Radical Ideas

Google recently held a private technology gathering for innovators, and plans to share some of the discussions and related materials through the Web site WeSolveForX...

From ACM News

Burning Man

On his first tour of duty in Afghanistan, Sam Brown was set on fire by an improvised explosive device. He survived, only to find himself, like thousands of other...

The Future of Hiring: Human Resources, Without the Humans
From ACM Careers

The Future of Hiring: Human Resources, Without the Humans

Imagine a scenario where your next job interview isn't face-to-face, but face-to-screen. There are no questions about your former work experience and office habits...

From ACM News

Slow Graphene Down, Speed Computers Up

Astonishing conductivity helped the discoverers of graphene win the Nobel prize in physicsin 2010. Now a way to switch off the easy flow of electrons in this wonder...

Designing Windows 8, or How to Redesign a Religion
From ACM Opinion

Designing Windows 8, or How to Redesign a Religion

There are lot of hard jobs at Microsoft. But Sam Moreau just might have the hardest of all. Or at least the most harrowing. Over the past five years, he's taken...

Harnessing the Predictive Power of Virtual Communities
From ACM TechNews

Harnessing the Predictive Power of Virtual Communities

University of Ljubljana researchers say they have developed an algorithm that can detect virtual communities better than existing state-of-the-art algorithms.  

From ACM News

Four Telescope Link-Up Creates World's Largest Mirror

Astronomers have created the world's largest virtual optical telescope linking four telescopes in Chile, so that they operate as a single device.

Self-Steering Bullet Researched By U.s. Weapons Experts
From ACM News

Self-Steering Bullet Researched By U.s. Weapons Experts

A self-guiding bullet that can steer itself towards its target is being developed for use by the U.S. military.

Graphene Competitor ­sed to Make Circuits
From ACM TechNews

Graphene Competitor ­sed to Make Circuits

The first logic circuits made using atom-thick sheets of molybdenite suggest the material could be an alternative to graphene as a possible solution to the problem...

From ACM News

Shrunken Servers Aim For a Greener Internet

As the cloud becomes more pervasive—driving everything from social networking to mobile apps—the computers that power it must guzzle more and more energy.

From ACM News

DARPA Takes Aim at "achilles Heel" of Advanced Computing: Power

The power required to increase computing performance, especially in embedded or sensor systems has become a serious constraint and is restricting the potential...

From ACM News

Wireless Sensors Monitor Brain-Waves on the Fly

A fighter pilot heads back to base after a long mission, feeling spent. A warning light flashes on the control panel.
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