Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2018
From ACM TechNews
Blue Brain Project Installs HPE Supercomputer
Researchers have implemented a fifth-generation supercomputer to help reach the goal of digitally simulating a complete mammalian brain by 2020.
From ACM TechNews
Tens of Thousands Go Without Home Internet; Here's How San Francisco Wants to Fix It
San Francisco has proposed a $1.9-billion project to build its own high-speed network, to provide Internet access to more than 100,000 residents who lack home connectivity.
From ACM TechNews
Hacker-Powered Security Is Reaching Critical Mass
Hackers are finding more severe vulnerabilities than ever before, as the total number of high or critical severity vulnerabilities identified increased 22% last year.
From ACM News
Inside Facebook, Twitter and Google's AI Battle Over Your Social Lives
When you sign up for Facebook on your phone, the app isn't just giving you the latest updates and photos from your friends and family.
From ACM News
Microsoft Calls for Regulation of Facial Recognition, Saying It's Too Risky to Leave to Tech Industry Alone
Microsoft is calling for government regulation on facial-recognition software, one of its key technologies, saying such artificial intelligence is too important and potentially dangerous for tech giants to police themselves.
…From ACM TechNews
New Insider Attack Steals Passwords by Reading Thermal Energy From Keyboards
A new insider attack strategy involving the measurement of thermal energy from keyboards has demonstrated the ability to expose passwords.
From ACM TechNews
White House Earmarks Over $1B for Quantum Technology Research
The White House has established an Office of Science and Technology Policy subcommittee to oversee federal backing and investment for quantum technology research.
From ACM TechNews
Crystals Could Cool Down Your Future Electronic Devices
A team of researchers used boron arsenide crystals to cool electronic devices more effectively than current methods.
From ACM TechNews
Sprawling Wheel Leg Robot Crawls and Climbs
A sprawling robot at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel upgrades an earlier design's wheel-leg mobility so it can scale impediments.
From ACM TechNews
Computer Science Researchers Help Answer Age-Old Medical Science Question
Researchers used computer models to determine how veins containing red blood get their bluish appearance.
From ACM News
How Rare Earths (What?) Could Be Crucial in a .S.-China Trade War
Amanda Lacaze grabbed her iPhone and rattled off the names of the special minerals needed to make it.
From ACM News
Tracing Ghost Particles Back to a Distant Black Hole
It was the smallest bullet you could possibly imagine, a subatomic particle weighing barely more than a thought, and a cosmic blunderbuss, a supermassive black hole, squirting fire down a gravitational gun barrel.
From ACM TechNews
Big Data Analysis Identifies New Cancer Risk Genes
Researchers in Spain have developed an analysis method for systematically identifying genes involved in hereditary cancer risk, using existing cancer genome datasets.
From ACM TechNews
Test Tube Artificial Neural Network Recognizes 'Molecular Handwriting'
California Institute of Technology researchers have developed an artificial neural network from DNA that can correctly identify handwritten numbers.
From ACM TechNews
How Computers Parse the Ambiguity of Everyday Language
Ohio State University researchers investigating the challenge of ambiguous language for computers used an online game to clarify work in the field of natural language processing.
From ACM News
Simpifying Machine-based Touch Sensing
A three-dimensionally-printed nervous system could allow robots to perceive touch the way we do.
From ACM News
'We Can Build a Real Time Machine'
Travelling in time might sound like a flight of fancy, but some physicists think it might really be possible.
From ACM News
Facebook's Push for Facial Recognition Prompts Privacy Alarms
When Facebook rolled out facial recognition tools in the European Union this year, it promoted the technology as a way to help people safeguard their online identities.
From ACM TechNews
Girl Scouts Are Learning to Pick Locks, Hack Computers
The Girl Scouts are hosting workshops to teach members the basics in science, technology, engineering, and math.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Discover Android Apps Spying on sers' Screens
An analysis of Android apps found “several” clandestinely recording and sharing video and images of users' screens.
From ACM TechNews
Code Now, Pay Tuition Later
Organizations are offering free coding programs for Web engineers that include job placement; graduates agree to pay the schools a portion of their salaries once they are employed.
From ACM TechNews
Smart Bandages Designed to Monitor and Tailor Treatment for Chronic Wounds
A team of researchers has developed a prototype bandage that can actively monitor chronic wounds, and deliver appropriate drug treatments to improve the chances of healing.
From ACM TechNews
Popcorn-Driven Robotic Actuators
Cornell University researchers have devised ways for biodegradable robotic actuators to be powered by popping corn.
From ACM TechNews
Holograms Are Helping Medical Training
San Diego State University and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center are testing mixed-reality software for the education of nurse trainees.
From ACM News
The Complex Physics Behind Bending It Like a World Cup Player
The gems of every World Cup are the impossible goals.
From ACM News
The AI Revolution Has Spawned a New Chips Arms Race
For years, the semiconductor world seemed to have settled into a quiet balance: Intel vanquished virtually all of the RISC processors in the server world, save IBM's POWER line. Elsewhere AMD had self-destructed, making it pretty…
From ACM News
This Is the Brightest Early niverse Object Ever Seen
A galaxy spinning around a hungry supermassive black hole that's guzzling down matter and shooting out plasma jets has grabbed the attention of astronomers 13 billion light-years away.
From ACM TechNews
Robot Able to Mimic an Activity After Observing It Just One Time
A University of California, Berkeley team has engineered a robot that can mimic an activity after viewing it only once on a video screen.
From ACM TechNews
How to Stop Artificial Intelligence Being Biased
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany have developed a new method to avoid embedding bias into machine learning algorithms.
From ACM TechNews
How Architects Are sing Virtual Reality to Walk Through Buildings That Don't Yet Exist
Virtual reality is allowing architects to preview structures that have not yet been built in an immersive, three-dimensional manner.