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
World's Most Powerful Particle Collider Taps AI to Expose Hack Attacks
Thousands of scientists worldwide tap into CERN's computer networks each day in their quest to better understand the fundamental structure of the universe.
From ACM Opinion
20 Years After Deep Blue: How AI Has Advanced Since Conquering Chess
Twenty years ago IBM's Deep Blue computer stunned the world by becoming the first machine to beat a reigning world chess champion in a six-game match.
From ACM News
When Hatred Goes Viral: Inside Social Media's Efforts to Combat Terrorism
On New Year's Eve in 2015 local and federal agents arrested a 26-year-old man in Rochester, N.Y., for planning to attack people at random later that night using...
From ACM News
The Search For Life on Mars Is About to Get Weird
Since the dawn of the space age NASA and other agencies have spent billions of dollars to reconnoiter Mars—assailing it with spacecraft flybys, photo-snapping orbiters...
From ACM News
The Pentagon's Seek-and-Destroy Mission For Counterfeit Electronics
The Pentagon has known for years that a significant number of the replacement parts it buys for its missile guidance and satellite systems contain substandard counterfeit...
From ACM Opinion
Ghost in the Sell: Hollywood's Mischievous Vision of AI
Watch enough science fiction movies and you'll probably come to the conclusion that humans are living on borrowed time.
From ACM News
Brain-Computer Interface Allows Speediest Typing to Date
Ten years ago Dennis Degray's life changed forever when he slipped and fell while taking out the trash in the rain.
From ACM News
Europa Mission Heralds Sea Change in the Search For Alien Life
It's not something NASA likes to advertise, but ever since its creation in 1958, the space agency has only conducted one direct, focused hunt for extraterrestrial...
From ACM News
Can Artificial Intelligence Predict Earthquakes?
Predicting earthquakes is the holy grail of seismology.
From ACM News
Trick of Tweet: Data Tool Pinpoints Words Seen as Credible
Sixty-two percent of Americans get their news from social media, according to a 2016 poll by Pew Research Center.
From ACM News
150-Year Journey to Alpha Centauri Proposed
Interstellar travel, a timeworn staple of science fiction, can already be science fact if one has cash to spare
From ACM News
How to Learn Morse Code—semiconsciously
Learning Morse code, with its tappity-tap rhythms of dots and dashes, could take far less effort—and attention—than one might think.
From ACM News
New Rules For Avoiding Cyber Bugs in Medical Devices
The U.S. government on Tuesday issued rules for addressing cyber vulnerabilities in medical devices, providing manufacturers with guidelines for fixing security...
From ACM Opinion
Trump's Plans to Shake p the Tech World
Donald Trump's ascension to the White House had very little to do with his views on the spread of high-speed broadband, wireless spectrum allocation—or any number...
From ACM News
Tangled p in Spacetime
"All the world’s a stage…," Shakespeare wrote, and physicists tend to think that way, too.
From ACM Opinion
Could Obama's Threat of Retaliation Against Russia Lead to Cyberwar?
Late last week Obama administration officials used NBC News to send Moscow a cryptic threat: The U.S. government is "contemplating an unprecedented cyber covert...
From ACM News
Human Brain Map Gets a Bold New Update
Most of us think little of hopping on Google Maps to look at everything from a bird's-eye view of an entire continent to an on-the-ground view of a specific street...
From ACM News
Mind Aglow: Scientists Watch Thoughts Form in the Brain
When a single neuron fires, it is an isolated chemical blip. When many fire together, they form a thought.
From ACM Opinion
Mind-Controlled Robo-Skeleton Enables Paraplegics to Regain Some Motion
Patients paralyzed by a spinal cord injury can face a grim and grueling recovery process—one in which regaining function is far from a sure thing. But a new study...
From ACM News