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Visualizing 4-Dimensional Asteroids
From ACM Opinion

Visualizing 4-Dimensional Asteroids

One of the largest treasure troves of astronomical data comes from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), an ongoing scan of the firmament that began 15 years ago...

The Case For Kill Switches in Military Weaponry
From ACM Opinion

The Case For Kill Switches in Military Weaponry

This summer the insurgent group ISIS captured the Iraqi city of Mosul—and along with it, three army divisions' worth of U.S.-supplied equipment from the Iraqi army...

Beyond Classic Brain Illustrations That Make ­S Drool
From ACM Opinion

Beyond Classic Brain Illustrations That Make ­S Drool

I threw down a bit of a challenge last month at the Association of Medical Illustrators Conference in Minnesota.

Quantum Chaos: After a Failed Speed Test, the D-Wave Debate Continues
From ACM Opinion

Quantum Chaos: After a Failed Speed Test, the D-Wave Debate Continues

How hard can it be to determine whether a computer works as promised?

Time Travel: Installing an Atomic Clock at 15,000 Feet
From ACM Opinion

Time Travel: Installing an Atomic Clock at 15,000 Feet

A few months ago I went to Cambridge, Mass. to check in with the Event Horizon Telescope crew and found Shep Doeleman, the project leader, fresh off the completion...

So Far, Big Data Is Small Potatoes
From ACM Opinion

So Far, Big Data Is Small Potatoes

Is Big Data going to revolutionize science and help us make a better world? Not based on what it's done so far.

From ACM Opinion

Time Machines Would Run Afoul of the Second Law of Thermodynamics

We've all seen those movies where someone goes back in time and tries to change something (the classic "Grandfather Paradox": what happens if you go back in time...

Warp Drive Research Key to Interstellar Travel
From ACM Opinion

Warp Drive Research Key to Interstellar Travel

As any avid Star Trek fan can tell you, the eccentric physicist Zefram Cochrane invented the warp-drive engine in the year 2063.

Asimov's Predictions from 1964: A Brief Report Card
From ACM Opinion

Asimov's Predictions from 1964: A Brief Report Card

Predictions about technology's future are almost always doomed.

7 Gadgets to Watch For in 2014
From ACM Opinion

7 Gadgets to Watch For in 2014

Turn an ordinary table into a touch screen, monitor your kids' whereabouts, and place the power of 3D printing in the palm of your hand—and there’s more.

Software Recognition Technology Is Amazing, but Not Amazing Enough
From ACM Opinion

Software Recognition Technology Is Amazing, but Not Amazing Enough

The gadget blogs may work themselves into a frenzy over megapixels and processor speed. But if you want to know what really dazzles the masses, consider a feature...

How Far Away Is Mind-Machine Integration?
From ACM Opinion

How Far Away Is Mind-Machine Integration?

Okay, great: we can control our phones with speech recognition and our television sets with gesture recognition.

A Rosie Future: Jetsons-Like Gadgets with 'ambient Intelligence' Are Key to Smart Homes and Cities
From ACM Opinion

A Rosie Future: Jetsons-Like Gadgets with 'ambient Intelligence' Are Key to Smart Homes and Cities

Fifty years after The Jetsons promised us a future of robot maids, flying cars, video phones and meals at the push of a button, it seems that reality may actually...

One Thing Is Certain: Heisenberg's ­Uncertainty Principle Is Not Dead
From ACM Opinion

One Thing Is Certain: Heisenberg's ­Uncertainty Principle Is Not Dead

A demonstration by experimenters at the Vienna University of Technology violates Heisenberg's original version of his uncertainty principle, but confirms a newer...

From ACM Opinion

Can Math Beat Financial Markets?

Wall Street's wild swings last week helped skew both retirement portfolios and mathematical models of the financial markets. After all, a standard Gaussian function—a...

From ACM Opinion

Long Live the Web: A Call For Continued Open Standards and Neutrality

The Web is critical not merely to the digital revolution but to our continued prosperity—and even our liberty. Like democracy itself, it needs defending.

From ACM Opinion

Connecting with an Internet Pioneer, 40 Years Later

Forty years ago—on December 5, 1969—the U.S. Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) connected four computer network nodes at the University...
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