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
Exoplanet Hunters Rethink Search For Alien Life
Steve Desch can see the future of exoplanet research, and it's not pretty.
From ACM News
Small Group Scoops International Effort to Sequence Huge Wheat Genome
The wheat genome is finally complete.
From ACM News
Crispr Hacks Enable Pinpoint Repairs to Genome
The toolbox for editing genes expanded this week, as two research groups announced techniques that enable researchers to make targeted alterations to DNA and RNA...
From ACM News
Photons Pair Up Like Superconducting Electrons
Superconductivity—a phenomenon in which electrons can travel through certain materials with zero resistance—has revolutionized parts of medicine, travel and science...
From ACM News
The Shape of Work to Come
Last year, entrepreneur Sebastian Thrun set out to augment his sales force with artificial intelligence.
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
Supercomputer Redesign of Aeroplane Wing Mirrors Bird Anatomy
Engineers have used a supercomputing technique that mimics natural selection to design the internal structure of an aircraft wing from scratch.
From ACM News
Collaborative Software Development Made Easy
Sebastian Neubert, a particle physicist at Heidelberg University in Germany, leads a group studying subatomic particles called pentaquarks. The six team members...
From ACM News
Risk of Human-Triggered Earthquakes Laid Out in Biggest-Ever Database
From mining projects to oil and gas operations, human activity has set off earthquakes around the world and in many geological settings.
From ACM News
The Drug-Maker's Guide to the Galaxy
In 2016, the pharmaceutical firm Sunovion gave a group of seasoned employees an unusual assignment.
From ACM News
Researchers nite in Quest For 'standard Model' of the Brain
Leading neuroscientists are joining forces to study the brain—in much the same way that physicists team up in mega-projects to hunt for new particles.
From ACM News
Cassini Crashes Into Saturn but Could Still Deliver Big Discoveries
At 4:55 a.m. California time on 15 September, hundreds of scientists watched their life's work go up in flames.
From ACM News
Global Fingerprints of Sea-Level Rise Revealed By Satellites
As an ice sheet melts, it leaves a unique signature behind. Complex geological processes distribute the meltwater in a distinct pattern, or 'fingerprint', thatthese...
From ACM News
Geneticists Pan Paper that Claims to Predict a Person's Face from Their Dna
A storm of criticism has rained down on a paper by genome-sequencing pioneer Craig Venter that claims to predict people's physical traits from their DNA.
From ACM News
Massive Genetic Study Shows How Humans Are Evolving
A huge genetic study that sought to pinpoint how the human genome is evolving suggests that natural selection is getting rid of harmful genetic mutations that shorten...
From ACM News
Plot a Course Through the Genome
Chromatin does much more than just keep DNA neat and tidy.
From ACM News
Reprogrammed Cells Relieve Parkinson's Symptoms in Trials
Japanese researchers report promising results from an experimental therapy for Parkinson's disease that involves implanting neurons made from 'reprogrammed' stem...
From ACM News
Cassini's 13 Years of Stunning Saturn Science—in Pictures
Twenty years ago, in the wee hours of a muggy Florida morning, the Cassini spacecraft lit up the skies as it blasted off from Cape Canaveral.
From ACM News
Europe's X-Ray Laser Fires p
Scientists who make movies of molecules in motion have a new high-speed camera to shoot with. The €1.2-billion (US$1.4-billion) European X-ray Free Electron Laser...
From ACM News