Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
May 2022
From ACM TechNews
Robot Bartender Won't Flirt with Your Date, but You Still Have to Tip
Italian robotic bartending systems developer Makr Shakr said its Bionic Bar system has been installed aboard Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas cruise ship.
From ACM News
The Man Who Controls Computers With His Mind
Sixteen years ago, Dennis DeGray was paralyzed in an accident. Now, implants in his brain allow him some semblance of control.
From ACM TechNews
World Wide Web's Creator Wants Metaverse VR
World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee expects virtual reality and metaverse-associated technologies to shape future online interaction.
From ACM TechNews
Astronomers Image Massive Black Hole at Center of Our Galaxy
Astronomers used supercomputers and computer algorithms to record the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
From ACM TechNews
Multi-Tasking Wearable Continuously Monitors Glucose, Alcohol, Lactate
University of California, San Diego engineers have created a wearable device that continuously tracks monitor glucose, alcohol, and lactate levels simultaneously.
From ACM TechNews
Virtual Tennis Racket Uses Air Jet to Recreate Feel of Hitting Ball
Researchers have developed the AirRacket, a virtual reality controller that emits bursts of compressed air to simulate a ball's impact in racket sports.
From ACM News
F.B.I. Told Israel It Wanted Pegasus Hacking Tool for Investigations
A 2018 letter from the bureau to the Israeli government is the clearest documentary evidence to date that the agency weighed using the spyware for law enforcement operations.
From ACM News
Cryptocurrencies Melt Down in a 'Perfect Storm' of Fear and Panic
A steep sell-off that gained momentum this week starkly illustrated the risks of the experimental and unregulated digital currencies.
From ACM News
Musk Puts Twitter Acquisition 'Temporarily on Hold'
Musk wants to investigate whether the number of bots on the platform is as low as the company claims—or is he looking for a way out?
From ACM News
Surprising Bacterial Nanowire Discovery May Lead to Living, Self-Repairing Electrical Circuits
Cooling speeds up electrons in bacterial nanowires.
From ACM News
Unexpected Semiconductor Properties Revealed by Innovative New Tool
Discovery reveals the role of oxygen impurities in semiconductor properties.
From ACM News
Europe's New Law Will Force Secretive TikTok to Open Up
The Digital Services Act will extract more new information from the young app than from older platforms like Facebook.
From ACM TechNews
AIs Could Be Hacked with Undetectable Backdoors to Make Bad Decisions
Renegade staff theoretically could insert undetectable backdoors in third-party artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, enabling hackers to commandeer the AIs to make bad decisions.
From ACM TechNews
Wearable Technology for Plants
Researchers have developed a wearable sensor for plant leaves that enables remote management of drought stress in gardens and farms.
From ACM TechNews
Does Presenting Credibility Labels of Journalistic Sources Affect News Consumption? Study Finds Limited Effects
New York University researchers found labeling the credibility of information sources may improve the online news consumption to a limited degree.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Can Predict Battery Lifetimes with ML
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory used a machine learning algorithm to forecast the longevity of various battery chemistries.
From ACM News
How Smart Is AI After All These Years?
Virtual assistants seem to be great at retrieving facts, and absolutely terrible at giving advice as they have no common sense.
From ACM TechNews
Chemical Computer Can Be Programmed to Solve Hard Problems
Researchers have programmed a chemical computer to solve specific problems, following earlier research on encoding data into the system.
From ACM TechNews
Self-Driving Microscopes Discover Shortcuts to New Materials
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are training microscopes to find new materials faster using an intuitive algorithm.
From ACM TechNews
What It's Like to Have a Robot Paint Your Nails for $10
Retail giant Target has deployed fingernail-painting robots manufactured by the Clockwork company at three stores in California and Minnesota.
From ACM TechNews
Unpacking Black-Box Models
A mathematical framework aims to quantify and evaluate the understandability of a machine learning model's explanations for its predictions.
From ACM TechNews
Neon Ice Shows Promise as Qubit Platform
Researchers created a new quantum bit (qubit) platform using frozen neon gas.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Highlight More Equitable Way to Analyze DNA Data from Understudied Groups
Brown University scientists led a multi-institutional team in employing new DNA analysis methods to better understand genetic conditions' impact across different populations.
From ACM News
ACM Recognizes Far-Reaching Technical Achievements with Special Awards
Award recipients made contributions to areas including secure systems, software, privacy, and artificial intelligence.
From ACM News
Crowdfunding a War: How Online Appeals Are Bringing Weapons to Ukraine
The online campaign has tapped into widespread Western sympathy and produced meaningful donations for the country's war effort.
From ACM News
Russia Was Behind Cyberattack in Run-Up to Ukraine War, Investigation Finds
The attack focused on a system run by Viasat, a California company that provides high-speed satellite communication services — and was used heavily by the Ukrainian government.
From ACM News
Think Like a Computer
A pilot program designed in part by educators at South Dakota's Sanford Underground Research Facility is introducing computational thinking into elementary school curricula.
From ACM TechNews
Machine Learning Program for Games Inspires Development of Groundbreaking Scientific Tool
A reinforcement learning algorithm aims to speed up materials discovery by modeling material properties at the atomic and molecular scale.
From ACM TechNews
Lego to Expand Online Ambitions by Tripling Total of Software Engineers
From ACM TechNews
Proposed Search Strategies Improve Computational Cost of Bicycle-Sharing Problem
Researchers at Japan's Tokyo University of Science proposed two methods for reducing the computational cost of bicycle sharing systems without impacting performance.