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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.


CS and Biology's Growing Pains
From Communications of the ACM

CS and Biology's Growing Pains

Biologists can benefit from learning and using the tools of computer science, but several real-world obstacles remain.

Photonic Material May Facilitate All-Optical Switching
From ACM News

Photonic Material May Facilitate All-Optical Switching

A class of molecules whose size, structure and chemical composition have been optimized for photonic use could provide the demanding combination of properties needed...

From ACM News

Is That a 'black Box' in Your Car?

Just a few miles east of Los Angeles International Airport, a Chevy Tahoe barreled its way through a residential neighborhood on a Sunday evening. The driver lost...

For Chip Makers, the Next Battle Is in Smartphones
From ACM News

For Chip Makers, the Next Battle Is in Smartphones

The going rate for a state-of-the-art chip factory is about $3 billion. The plants typically take years to build. And the microscopic size of chip circuitry requires...

What ­tilities Have Learned From Smart-Meter Tests...
From ACM News

What ­tilities Have Learned From Smart-Meter Tests...

Utilities have learned a lot about how smart meters can compel consumers to save electricity. Unfortunately, too often they aren't putting the knowledge to good...

Searching For Saddam
From ACM News

Searching For Saddam

Traffic had slowed to a crawl in Baghdad's Azamiyah district as drivers stopped to ogle the president. It was April 2003, and Saddam Hussein cheerily greeted his...

Swarm of Micro-Helicopters Could Create a Giant 3-D Display
From ACM News

Swarm of Micro-Helicopters Could Create a Giant 3-D Display

Mechanical fireflies could help create a new kind of 3-D display, say researchers at MIT. Standing in for the bioluminescent beetles will be LED-fitted, remotely...

From ACM News

Internet Making Our Brains Different, Not Dumb

A decade from now, Google won't make us "stupid," the Internet may make us more literate in a different kind of way, and efforts to protect individual anonymity...

From ACM News

Cellphone Traces Reveal You're So Predictable

We may all like to consider ourselves free spirits. But a study of the traces left by 50,000 cellphone users over three months has conclusively proved otherwise...

Lego Robot Solves Any Rubik
From ACM News

Lego Robot Solves Any Rubik

Be warned my fellow humans, robots will not be satisfied until they defeat us in even the most trivial of contests. Cube Stormer is the latest creation from Mike...

Turning Patents Into
From ACM News

Turning Patents Into

Nathan Myhrvold wants to shake up the marketplace for ideas. His mission and the activities of the company he heads, Intellectual Ventures, a secretive $5 billion...

Digging Deep Into Diamonds
From ACM TechNews

Digging Deep Into Diamonds

Harvard University researchers have created diamond-based nanowire devices that offer a bright, stable source of single photons at room temperature, which is an...

DARPA Looks to Build Real-Life C3p0
From ACM News

DARPA Looks to Build Real-Life C3p0

Right now, troops trying to listen in on enemy chatter rely on a convoluted process. They tune into insurgency radio frequencies, then hand the radio over to local...

From ACM News

A Faster Wireless Web

Transfers of large amounts of data across the Internet to wireless devices suffer from a key problem: The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) used to send and receive...

­.s. Networks and Power Grid ­nder (mock) Cyber-Attack
From ACM News

­.s. Networks and Power Grid ­nder (mock) Cyber-Attack

Unknown hackers have taken out U.S. cellphone networks in an ongoing cyber-attack that will soon knock out parts of the nation's electricity grid – say the officials...

Do-It-Yourself Genetic Engineering
From ACM News

Do-It-Yourself Genetic Engineering

It all started with a brawny, tattooed building contractor with a passion for exotic animals. He was taking biology classes at City College of San Francisco, a...

Researchers Envision High-Tech Applications For 'multiferroic' Crystals
From ACM News

Researchers Envision High-Tech Applications For 'multiferroic' Crystals

Two of Florida State University's most accomplished scientists' recent collaborative research project has yielded results that could lay the groundwork for future...

From ACM News

Feds Push For Tracking Cell Phones

Two years ago, when the FBI was stymied by a band of armed robbers known as the "Scarecrow Bandits" that had robbed more than 20 Texas banks, it came up with aconvicted...

From ACM News

Ibm's Jeopardy-Playing Machine Now Beats Human Contestants

IBM's Jeopardy-playing supercomputer is now capable of beating human Jeopardy contestants on a regular basis, but has a ways to go before it takes on the likes...

Wi-Fi at the Speed of Light
From ACM News

Wi-Fi at the Speed of Light

A wireless network that uses reflected infrared light instead of radio waves has transmitted data through the air at a speed of one gigabit per second—six to 14...
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