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
Physicists Plan to Build a Bigger Lhc
When Europe's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) started up in 2008, particle physicists would not have dreamt of asking for something bigger until they got their US$5...
From ACM News
Genome Hacker ncovers Largest-Ever Family Tree
Using data pulled from online genealogy sites, a renowned 'genome hacker' has constructed what is likely the biggest family trees ever assembled.
From ACM News
Brain Decoding: Reading Minds
Jack Gallant perches on the edge of a swivel chair in his lab at the University of California, Berkeley, fixated on the screen of a computer that is trying to decode...
From ACM Careers
Researchers Split Over NSA Hacking
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has upset a great many people this year.
From ACM News
Formula Predicts Research Papers' Future Citations
It sounds like a science administrator’s dream—or a scientist's worst nightmare: a formula that predicts how often research papers will be cited.
From ACM News
Did a Hyper-Black Hole Spawn the niverse?
It could be time to bid the Big Bang bye-bye. Cosmologists have speculated that the Universe formed from the debris ejected when a four-dimensional star collapsed...
From ACM News
Gaming Improves Multitasking Skills
Sixty-five-year-old Ann Linsey was starting to worry about how easily she got distracted from whatever she was doing.
From ACM News
Quantum Paradox Seen in Diamond
A quantum effect named after an ancient Greek puzzle has been observed in diamond, paving the way for the use of diamond crystals in quantum computer chips.
From ACM News
Father's Genetic Quest Pays Off
Hugh Rienhoff says that his nine-year-old daughter, Bea, is "a fire cracker", "a tomboy" and "a very sassy, impudent girl". But in a forthcoming research paper,...
From ACM News
Drones in Science: Fly, and Bring Me Data
The Tempest—wingspan 3.2 metres, cruising speed 75 knots—was designed to fly into severe storms.
From ACM News
Computer Memory Can Be Read with a Flash of Light
Modern computer-memory technologies come with a trade-off. There is speedy but short-term storage for on-the-fly processing—random-access memory, or RAM—and slow...
From ACM News
Computational Social Science: Making the Links
Jon Kleinberg's early work was not for the mathematically faint of heart.
From ACM News