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From ACM Opinion

We Need a Moratorium on 'Brain-Like' Tech Stories

My "aha" moment arrived two decades ago while I was an undergrad student (and dilettante "futurist," though I didn’t know the word then), sitting in the Great Hall...

Jeff Hawkins: Where Open Source and Machine Learning Meet Big Data
From ACM TechNews

Jeff Hawkins: Where Open Source and Machine Learning Meet Big Data

Smartphone pioneer Jeff Hawkins says that he primarily concentrates today on building machines that operate on neuroscientific principles.

Craig Venter on the Hail Mary Genome and Synthetic Meat
From ACM Opinion

Craig Venter on the Hail Mary Genome and Synthetic Meat

Where are we in the hype cycle of synthetic biology?

In Pursuit of Quantum Biology With Birgitta Whaley
From ACM Opinion

In Pursuit of Quantum Biology With Birgitta Whaley

As an undergraduate at Oxford University in the mid-1970s, K. Birgitta Whaley struggled to choose between chemistry and physics.

If We Landed on Europa, What Would We Want to Know?
From ACM Opinion

If We Landed on Europa, What Would We Want to Know?

Most of what scientists know of Jupiter's moon Europa they have gleaned from a dozen or so close flybys from NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1979 and NASA's Galileo...

From ACM Opinion

The End of Integrated Systems

I always travel with a pair of binoculars and, to the puzzlement of my fellow airline passengers, spend part of every flight gazing through them at whatever happens...

One Year on Mars: Curiosity Rover's Chief Scientist John Grotzinger Speaks Out
From ACM Opinion

One Year on Mars: Curiosity Rover's Chief Scientist John Grotzinger Speaks Out

One year ago Monday (Aug. 5), NASA's Mars rover Curiosity pulled off a stunning and unprecedented landing inside Gale Crater, kicking off a two-year surface mission...

The Brains Behind Research on the Brain
From ACM Careers

The Brains Behind Research on the Brain

While studying physics and electrical engineering as an MIT undergraduate in the late 1990s, Mehmet Fatih Yanik managed to avoid taking any biology classes until...

Justice For Alan Turing?
From ACM Opinion

Justice For Alan Turing?

What do we do with the knowledge that people not all that different from ourselves have behaved with astounding stupidity and cruelty, over and over again, in the...

Cherry-Picking and the Scientific Method
From Communications of the ACM

Cherry-Picking and the Scientific Method

Software is supposed be a part of computer science, and science demands proof.

The End of Digital Tyranny: Why the Future of Computing Is Analog
From ACM Opinion

The End of Digital Tyranny: Why the Future of Computing Is Analog

Our world is ruled by 1s and 0s.

From ACM Opinion

Your Brain at Work

When Apple fanatics lined up to get the new iPhone in 2011, the New York Times published an op-ed titled "You Love Your iPhone. Literally." It described an unpublished...

The Hut Where the Internet Began
From ACM Opinion

The Hut Where the Internet Began

Let's start at the end point: what you're doing right now. You are pulling information from a network onto a screen, enhancing your embodied experience with a communication...

The 12 Best Designs from the Past 100 Years
From ACM Opinion

The 12 Best Designs from the Past 100 Years

Is the much-loved Piaggio Vespa more iconic than the floppy disk? Is the iPod more of a design classic than the Airbus A380?

'maker Movement' Taps Deep and Rich Tradition
From ACM Opinion

'maker Movement' Taps Deep and Rich Tradition

Sometimes I worry we're becoming a culture of technology consumers, instead of creators.

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...

Mathematicians Think Like Machines For Perfect Proofs
From ACM News

Mathematicians Think Like Machines For Perfect Proofs


The Quantum Company
From ACM Careers

The Quantum Company

"I've been doing combative stuff since I was born," says Geordie Rose, leaning back in a chair in his small, windowless office in Burnaby, Canada, as he describes...

The Most Amazing Map You'll See Today (no Matter What Day It Is)
From ACM News

The Most Amazing Map You'll See Today (no Matter What Day It Is)

There are many way to celebrate your 70th birthday.

What the Digital Brains of the Future Might Be Like
From ACM Opinion

What the Digital Brains of the Future Might Be Like

It is the rare entrepreneur who hits it truly big twice. Those who do—such as Ev Williams, Ted Turner, and Elon Musk—tend to stay within the original industry that...
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