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Maths Spying: The Quandary of Working For the Spooks
From ACM Opinion

Maths Spying: The Quandary of Working For the Spooks

For the past 10 months, a major international scandal has engulfed some of the world's largest employers of mathematicians.

Smallest Subversive: Mathematical Fight For Our World
From ACM Opinion

Smallest Subversive: Mathematical Fight For Our World

Did you know that every time you use your cellphone, you strike a blow for republicanism against both monarchy and a fixed Divine Order?

Five Ways to Make Sure We Never Lose a Plane Again
From ACM Opinion

Five Ways to Make Sure We Never Lose a Plane Again

For the past few weeks the world's attention has been focussed on the lost Malaysia Airlines plane and its 239 passengers and crew that has apparently crashed in...

Roomba Creator: Robot Doubles Need More Charisma
From ACM Opinion

Roomba Creator: Robot Doubles Need More Charisma

Colin Angle is co-founder and CEO of iRobot in Bedford, Massachusetts.

Bitcoin: How Its Core Technology Will Change the World
From ACM Opinion

Bitcoin: How Its Core Technology Will Change the World

Bitcoin has been called many things, from the future of money to a drug dealer's dream and everything else in between.

Lifelogging: What It's Like to Record Your Whole Life
From ACM Opinion

Lifelogging: What It's Like to Record Your Whole Life

Gordon Bell, one of the first people to chronicle his existence digitally, explains how it has changed his life and the potential pitfalls.

The Great Ideas Hiding ­nder the Invisibility Cloak
From ACM Opinion

The Great Ideas Hiding ­nder the Invisibility Cloak

Physicist John Pendry talks about the profound physics obscured by his invisibility cloak and how metamaterials could help realise the perfect lens.

My Quantum Algorithm Won't Break the Internet… Yet
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.

A Stronger 'online Eraser' Law Would Be a Mistake
From ACM Opinion

A Stronger 'online Eraser' Law Would Be a Mistake

Excited teenagers—in other words normal teenagers—have never been famous for consistently wise decisions, nor should they be.

Craig Venter: Why I Put My Name in Synthetic Genomes
From ACM Opinion

Craig Venter: Why I Put My Name in Synthetic Genomes

How has the definition of life changed during your lifetime?

Texan Creationism Showdown May 'contaminate' Textbook
From ACM Opinion

Texan Creationism Showdown May 'contaminate' Textbook

If creationists in Texas get their way, high-school students throughout the U.S. could soon be reading biology textbooks that falsely cast doubt on the scientific...

Why a Cyberwar Won't Happen
From ACM Opinion

Why a Cyberwar Won't Happen

Exactly two decades ago, the RAND Corporation, an influential think tank, proclaimed that "cyberwar is coming!"

Nasa Is Turning Science Fiction Into Fact
From ACM Opinion

Nasa Is Turning Science Fiction Into Fact

As a new moon orbiter gets set to launch, Pete Worden, director of NASA Ames, says forget the 20th—this is the real space century.

State of Innovation: Busting the Private-Sector Myth
From ACM Opinion

State of Innovation: Busting the Private-Sector Myth

Images of tech entrepreneurs such as Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs are continually thrown at us by politicians, economists and the media.

Meet the Nasa Scientist Devising a Starship Warp Drive
From ACM Opinion

Meet the Nasa Scientist Devising a Starship Warp Drive

The idea that nothing can exceed the speed of light limits our interstellar ambitions. How do we get round this?

Hands On the Wheel, Mind On the Road–not Cyberspace
From ACM Opinion

Hands On the Wheel, Mind On the Road–not Cyberspace

Makers of cars and mobile electronics are pushing a tempting vision of the future. It is one in which you can stay fully connected while driving.

Free Online MIT Courses Are An Education Revolution
From ACM Opinion

Free Online MIT Courses Are An Education Revolution

Online learning is the biggest shake-up of education since the advent of the printing press, says Anant Agarwal, an MIT computing specialist.

Mathematicians Think Like Machines For Perfect Proofs
From ACM News

Mathematicians Think Like Machines For Perfect Proofs


'we Will Be Amazed By the Diversity of Exoplanets'
From ACM Opinion

'we Will Be Amazed By the Diversity of Exoplanets'

The Kepler space telescope's search may be at an end, but Didier Queloz, who found the first world around a sunlike star, says more planet hunts are afoot.

The Trouble With Neuroscience
From ACM Opinion

The Trouble With Neuroscience

No crevice of the human experience is safe.
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