Communications of the ACM
From ACM Opinion
Randolph Kirchain on the Spread of Electronic Waste
Randolph Kirchain, a senior research scientist in MIT's Engineering Systems Division, has long specialized in analyzing the raw materials used to manufacture new...
From ACM Opinion
Nasa's Chief Scientist on Mars, Moons, and Money
Planetary geologist Ellen Stofan joined NASA in August as the agency's chief scientist, an overarching role in which she advises on the science of all NASA programmes...
From ACM Opinion
President Obama Talks About Teaching Everyone to Code. This Professor Does It.
On Monday, President Obama kicked off computer science education week, encouraging every young person to acquire computer programming skills, even if they have...
From ACM Opinion
For Steve Ballmer, a Lasting Touch on Microsoft
On the eve of his exit as chief executive officer of Microsoft, after more than a decade on the job, Steve Ballmer is more than ever a CEO whose image does not...
From ACM Opinion
Saving the Net from the Surveillance State: Glenn Greenwald Speaks p
Big Brother may be watching you. But Glenn Greenwald is watching Big Brother.
From ACM Opinion
Google Puts Money on Robots, sing the Man Behind Android
In an out-of-the-way Google office, two life-size humanoid robots hang suspended in a corner.
From ACM TechNews
Sc13 Talk Pushes Hpc in New Educational Directions
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign National Center for Supercomputing Application director Thom Dunning discusses the potential for using computational...
From ACM Opinion
My Quantum Algorithm Won't Break the Internet… Yet
Internet security relies on the fact that our computers can't break its cryptosystems. But the quantum algorithm you devised has the potential to do just that.
From ACM Opinion
A Neuroscientist's Radical Theory of How Networks Become Conscious
It's a question that’s perplexed philosophers for centuries and scientists for decades: Where does consciousness come from?
From ACM Opinion
Will Ibm's Watson sher in a New Era of Cognitive Computing?
Computers as we know them have are close to reaching an inflection point—the next generation is in sight but not quite within our grasp.
From ACM Opinion
The Head of Google X Thinks We're All Too Risk-Averse
Google X is responsible for some of Google's most literally fantastic projects: Google Glass, self-driving cars, gigantic inflatable balloons that beam Internet...
From ACM Opinion
Mayor Ed Lee: 'tech Workers Are Not Robots'
Q: There's a concern that, because of all the in-house perks, tech companies don't help local economies that much. A: I feel the opposite. We have done two studies...
From ACM Opinion
Nest's Tony Fadell on Smart Objects, and the Singularity of Innovation
Tony Fadell is the founder and chief executive of Nest, a company that is trying to bring a high-end technology experience to some of the most prosaic areas of...
From ACM Opinion
Here's What the Morris Worm Prosecutor Thinks About Aaron Swartz
It was 25 years ago Tuesday that The New York Times first named 23-year-old Cornell graduate student Robert Morris as the culprit behind what became known as the...
From ACM Opinion
Tim Berners-Lee: Encryption Cracking By Spy Agencies 'appalling and Foolish'
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the computer scientist who created the World Wide Web, has called for a "full and frank public debate" over Internet surveillance by the National...
From ACM Opinion
Orson Scott Card Talks Ender's Game
In Ender's Game, the Nebula Award-winning 1985 novel by Orson Scott Card, a 6-year-old boy is taken from his family on Earth to an orbital military academy to be...
From ACM Opinion
Google nveils Tools to Access Web From Repressive Countries
Google Ideas, the New York City–based "think/do tank" run by the Internet search giant, is launching several new technologies designed to highlight hacker attacks...
From ACM Opinion
Craig Venter: Why I Put My Name in Synthetic Genomes
How has the definition of life changed during your lifetime?
From ACM Opinion
Lavabit Founder Says He Fought Feds to Protect the Constitution
Like a story straight out of the universe of Franz Kafka, Lavabit founder Ladar Levison found himself before a judge in Washington, representing himself against...
From ACM Opinion