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 TechNews
The Epic Battle Against Coronavirus Misinformation and Conspiracy Theories
Scientists worldwide are scrambling to track and counter the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic.
From ACM Opinion
AI Pioneer: 'The Dangers of Abuse Are Very Real'
Yoshua Bengio is one of three computer scientists who last week shared the US$1-million A. M. Turing award—one of the field's top prizes.
From ACM News
GPS Glitch Threatens Thousands of Scientific Instruments
Researchers worldwide are racing to get ahead of a bug in the US Global Positioning System (GPS) that could cause data loggers, including thousands of scientific...
From ACM News
Happy with a 20% Chance of Sadness
In the winter of 1994, a young man in his early twenties named Tim was a patient in a London psychiatric hospital.
From ACM News
Europe Shows First Cards in €1-Billion Quantum Bet
Plans to build two working quantum computers are among the first winners to be announced in a €1-billion (US$1.1 billion) funding initiative of the European Commission...
From ACM News
Here's What the Quantum Internet Has in Store
A future 'quantum internet' could find use long before it reaches technological maturity, a team of physicists predicts.
From ACM News
Supercharged Crime-Scene DNA Analysis Sparks Privacy Concerns
Genetic sleuthing techniques that led to the arrest of a suspect in the infamous Golden State Killer case this year are set to become vastly more powerful, suggest...
From ACM News
How npaywall Is Transforming Open Science
After being kicked out of a hotel conference room where they had participated in a three-day open-science workshop and hackathon, a group of computer scientists...
From ACM TechNews
The Ethics of Computer Science: This Researcher Has a Controversial Proposal
Brent Hecht, chair of ACM's Future of Computing Academy, proposes revising the peer review process to ensure scientists report negative societal consequences of...
From ACM Opinion
The Ethics of Computer Science: This Researcher Has a Controversial Proposal
In the midst of growing public concern over artificial intelligence (AI), privacy and the use of data, Brent Hecht has a controversial proposal: the computer-science...
From ACM News
The Scant Science Behind Cambridge Analytica's Controversial Marketing Techniques
The practices of Cambridge Analytica, a data-analytics firm involved in US President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign, have made headlines around the world...
From ACM News
Researchers Have Finally Created a Tool to Spot Duplicated Images Across Thousands of Papers
Computer software can now quickly detect duplicate images across large swathes of the research literature, three scientists say.
From ACM News
Could Bitcoin Technology Help Science?
The much-hyped technology behind Bitcoin, known as blockchain, has intoxicated investors around the world and is now making tentative inroads into science, spurred...
From ACM Opinion
The Scientist Who Spots Fake Videos
Hany Farid, a computer scientist at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, specialises in detecting manipulated images and videos. Farid, who provides his...
From ACM News
China's Quantum Satellite Clears Major Hurdle on Way to ltrasecure Communications
Just months into its mission, the world's first quantum-communications satellite has achieved one of its most ambitious goals.
From ACM News
How Bioinformatics Tools Are Bringing Genetic Analysis to the Masses
For doctors trying to treat people who have symptoms that have no clear cause, gene-sequencing technologies might help in pointing them to a diagnosis. But the...
From ACM News
How Scientists se Slack
When geneticist Daniel MacArthur checks into his lab, the first thing he does is fire up Slack, a workplace messaging app.
From ACM News
Donald Trump's US Election Win Stuns Scientists
Republican businessman and reality-television star Donald Trump will be the United States' next president.
From ACM Opinion
Inside Microsoft's Quest For a Topological Quantum Computer
The race is on build a "universal" quantum computer. Such a device could be programmed to speedily solve problems that classical computers cannot crack, potentially...
From ACM News