Communications of the ACM
An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.
From ACM News
Quantum Computer Makes First High-Energy Physics Simulation
Physicists have performed the first full simulation of a high-energy physics experiment—the creation of pairs of particles and their antiparticles—on a quantum...
From ACM News
'ransomware' Cyberattack Highlights Vulnerability of niversities
The first Patrick Feng knew about a cyberattack on his university was when one of his colleagues told him that her computer had been infected by hackers and rendered...
From ACM News
Ligo Detects Whispers of Another Black-Hole Merger
Just before 4 a.m. on 26 December, B. S. Sathyaprakash woke up to some good news: gravitational waves had been detected for only the second time in history.
From ACM News
A Simpler Twist of Fate
Until the day it dies, a cell that has become a skin cell remains a skin cell—or so scientists used to think.
From ACM News
Google Moves Closer to a niversal Quantum Computer
For 30 years, researchers have pursued the universal quantum computer, a device that could solve any computational problem, with varying degrees of success.
From ACM News
CRISPR Gene-Editing System nleashed on RNA
Researchers who discovered a molecular "scissors" for snipping genes have now developed a similar approach for targeting and cutting RNA.
From ACM News
Plan to Synthesize Human Genome Elicits Mixed Response
Proposals for a large public-private initiative to synthesize an entire human genome from scratch—an effort that could take a decade and require billions of dollars...
From ACM News
Digital Forensics: From the Crime Lab to the Library
When archivists at California's Stanford University received the collected papers of the late palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould in 2004, they knew right away they...
From ACM News
Two-Hundred-Terabyte Maths Proof Is Largest Ever
Three computer scientists have announced the largest-ever mathematics proof: a file that comes in at a whopping 200 terabytes1, roughly equivalent to all the digitized...
From ACM News
Illuminating Life's Building Blocks
Biophysicist Joerg Bewersdorf says that 2006 was fluorescence microscopy's annus mirabilis—a 'miraculous year' as momentous in its own way as 1905, when Albert...
From ACM News
1,500 Scientists Lift the Lid on Reproducibility
More than 70% of researchers have tried and failed to reproduce another scientist's experiments, and more than half have failed to reproduce their own experiments...
From ACM News
Giant Tsunamis Washed Over Ancient Mars
Some 3.4 billion years ago, giant meteoroids slammed into a frigid ocean covering Mars's northern hemisphere. The impacts kicked up enormous waves that raced across...
From ACM News
Light-Controlled Genes and Neurons Poised For Clinical Trials
Every time something poked its foot, the mouse jumped in pain.
From ACM News
Genome Reveals Why Giraffes Have Long Necks
Call it a tall task: researchers have decoded the genomes of the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi.
From ACM News
Computer Gleans Chemical Insight from Lab Notebook Failures
Did your experiment fail? Don't bin the data just yet—they could be useful.
From ACM News
Can Artificial Intelligence Create the Next Wonder Material?
It's a strong contender for the geekiest video ever made: a close-up of a smartphone with line upon line of numbers and symbols scrolling down the screen. But when...
From ACM News
The Struggle with Image Glut
As the fruit-fly larva wriggles forwards in the video, a crackle of neural activity shoots up its half-millimetre-long body.
From ACM News
Software Error Doomed Japanese Hitomi Spacecraft
Japan's flagship astronomical satellite Hitomi, which launched successfully on 17 February but tumbled out of control five weeks later, may have been doomed by...
From ACM Careers
AI Talent Grab Sparks Excitement and Concern
When Andrew Ng joined Google from Stanford University in 2011, he was among a trickle of artificial-intelligence (AI) experts in academia taking up roles in industry...
From ACM News