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
Dna Mutation Clock Proves Tough to Set
Mathematicians keep refining π even though they know it to more than 12 trillion digits; physicists beat themselves up because they cannot pin down the gravitational...
From ACM Careers
Mistrust and Meddling nsettles .s. Science Agency
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has had a tough couple of years.
From ACM News
Mediators Call For Change to Science of Human Brain Project
Mediators appointed to analyse the rifts within Europe’s ambitious €1-billion (US$1.1 billion) Human Brain Project (HBP) have called for far-reaching changes both...
From ACM News
Robo-Rescuers Battle It Out in Disaster Challenge
When the humanoid robot SAFFiR gets a shove, it reflexively moves to maintain its balance. SAFFiR can also walk over uneven terrain, turn its head to scan its surroundings...
From ACM News
Game-Playing Software Holds Lessons For Neuroscience
DeepMind, the Google-owned artificial-intelligence company, has revealed how it created a single computer algorithm that can learn how to play 49 different arcade...
From ACM News
Physics in Finance: Trading at the Speed of Light
Financial traders are in a race to make transactions ever faster.
From ACM News
Star Buzzed Solar System During Human Prehistory
A recently discovered stellar neighbour of the Sun penetrated the extreme fringes of the Solar System—the closest encounter ever documented—at around the time that...
From ACM News
Jupiter Glimpsed As Aliens Would See It
Astronomers have observed Jupiter for centuries.
From ACM News
European Languages Linked to Migration from the East
A mysterious group of humans from the east stormed western Europe 4,500 years ago—bringing with them technologies such as the wheel, as well as a language that...
From ACM News
Autonomous Vehicles: No Drivers Required
This summer, people will cruise through the streets of Greenwich, U.K., in electric shuttles with no one's hands on the steering wheel—or any steering wheel at...
From ACM News
Comet Scientists Abandon Philae Flyby
The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft will not make a dedicated flyby to search for the lost comet lander Philae any time soon, according to a post on...
From ACM News
Graphene's Cousin Silicene Makes Transistor Debut
Seven years ago, silicene was little more than a theorist's dream.
From ACM Careers
Programming: Pick p Python
Last month, Adina Howe took up a post at Iowa State University in Ames. Officially, she is an assistant professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering.
From ACM News
Hunt For Philae Hangs in the Balance
Scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) are debating whether to change part of the Rosetta mission in what would probably be the last attempt to find lost...
From ACM News
Astronomy: Laser Focus
On clear, moonless evenings, most of the biggest optical telescopes around the world begin the night's observations by firing a golden laser beam at the sky.
From ACM News
Attempts to Predict Terrorist Attacks Hit Limits
From France to Nigeria, the world is reeling from a wave of deadly terrorist attacks.
From ACM News
Tropical Paradise Inspires Virtual Ecology Lab
A paradise on Earth could soon become the first ecosystem in the world to be replicated in digital form in painstaking detail, from the genes of its plants and...
From ACM News
Exoplanet Bounty Includes Most Earth-Like Worlds Yet
NASA's Kepler space telescope has hit a milestone: confirming the existence of 1,000 planets, including a fresh crop of alien worlds that are more Earth-like than...
From ACM News
Galaxy Seen Shuddering from Ancient Collision
Using thousands of exposures from the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have created the sharpest and deepest image ever assembled of the Andromeda galaxy.
From ACM News