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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.


Fifty Years of Moon Dust: Surveyor 1 Was a Pathfinder For Apollo
From ACM News

Fifty Years of Moon Dust: Surveyor 1 Was a Pathfinder For Apollo

Before humans could take their first steps on the moon, that mysterious and forbidding surface had to be reconnoitered by robots.

Tech Turns to Biology as Data Storage Needs Explode
From ACM TechNews

Tech Turns to Biology as Data Storage Needs Explode

Several technology companies are investigating DNA data storage.

Plan to Synthesize Human Genome Elicits Mixed Response
From ACM News

Plan to Synthesize Human Genome Elicits Mixed Response

Proposals for a large public-private initiative to synthesize an entire human genome from scratch—an effort that could take a decade and require billions of dollars...

Pc Hardware Is Physically Leaking Your Encryption Keys
From ACM News

Pc Hardware Is Physically Leaking Your Encryption Keys

Your computer has an aura. That sentence causes me actual physical pain to type, but there's not really a better way to put it—whether you're surfing really fucked...

Pluto's Heart: Like a Cosmic 'lava Lamp'
From ACM News

Pluto's Heart: Like a Cosmic 'lava Lamp'

Combining computer models with topographic and compositional data gathered by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft last summer, New Horizons team members have determined...

A Mission to Bring STEM Skills, and Robots, to Children in West Africa
From ACM TechNews

A Mission to Bring STEM Skills, and Robots, to Children in West Africa

Sidy Ndao aims to advance science, technology, engineering, and math skills in West Africa by organizing events such as the Pan-African Robotics Competition. 

This 'demonically Clever' Backdoor Hides In a Tiny Slice of a Computer Chip
From ACM News

This 'demonically Clever' Backdoor Hides In a Tiny Slice of a Computer Chip

Security flaws in software can be tough to find. Purposefully planted ones—hidden backdoors created by spies or saboteurs—are often even stealthier.

Digital Forensics: From the Crime Lab to the Library
From ACM News

Digital Forensics: From the Crime Lab to the Library

When archivists at California's Stanford University received the collected papers of the late palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould in 2004, they knew right away they...

Study of 1 Million Sites Shows Just How Closely We're Watched
From ACM News

Study of 1 Million Sites Shows Just How Closely We're Watched

The web is watching you. Chunks of code hide inside every website, tracking your online behaviour.

Jumproach Is a Robotic Bug That Leaps and Flips Just Like an Insect
From ACM TechNews

Jumproach Is a Robotic Bug That Leaps and Flips Just Like an Insect

Researchers say they have developed a new kind of jumping mechanism for robots that has the potential to scale from tiny hops to a catapult launch. 

Tech Turns to Biology as Data Storage Needs Explode
From ACM News

Tech Turns to Biology as Data Storage Needs Explode

Researchers have decoded the genomes of mammoths and a 700,000-year-old horse using DNA fragments extracted from fossils in the past few years. DNA clearly persists...

Rosetta's Comet Contains Ingredients For Life
From ACM News

Rosetta's Comet Contains Ingredients For Life

Ingredients regarded as crucial for the origin of life on Earth have been discovered at the comet that ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has been probing for almost two...

Nasa Radar Finds Ice Age Record in Mars' Polar Cap
From ACM News

Nasa Radar Finds Ice Age Record in Mars' Polar Cap

Scientists using radar data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have found a record of the most recent Martian ice age recorded in the planet's north...

Two-Hundred-Terabyte Maths Proof Is Largest Ever
From ACM News

Two-Hundred-Terabyte Maths Proof Is Largest Ever

Three computer scientists have announced the largest-ever mathematics proof: a file that comes in at a whopping 200 terabytes1, roughly equivalent to all the digitized...

Self-Driving Truck Acts Like an Animal
From ACM TechNews

Self-Driving Truck Acts Like an Animal

The traditional way of developing vehicles may not work when developing future autonomous vehicles.

The Pipes Powering the Internet Are Nearly Full--What Do We Do?
From ACM TechNews

The Pipes Powering the Internet Are Nearly Full--What Do We Do?

The optical fibers that transmit data throughout the Internet have almost reached their capacity limits.

Shoot an Atom Into Silicon, and You May Have the Beginnings of a Quantum Computer
From ACM TechNews

Shoot an Atom Into Silicon, and You May Have the Beginnings of a Quantum Computer

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories say they have devised a possible first step toward the creation of a practical quantum computer. 

Push For Encryption Law Falters Despite Apple Case Spotlight
From ACM News

Push For Encryption Law Falters Despite Apple Case Spotlight

After a rampage that left 14 people dead in San Bernardino, key U.S. lawmakers pledged to seek a law requiring technology companies to give law enforcement agencies...

Artificial Intelligence Is Far From Matching Humans, Panel Says
From ACM News

Artificial Intelligence Is Far From Matching Humans, Panel Says

Never mind Terminator-like killer robots. Artificial intelligence researchers are grappling with more realistic questions like whether their creations will take...

On Your Mark. Get Set. Print!
From ACM News

On Your Mark. Get Set. Print!

Athletic footwear is about to be customized in the extreme, through a combination of computer vision-enabled scanning and three-dimensional printing.
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