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
Thank the Planet's Shifty Magnetic Poles For Runway Renaming
For decades, pilots heading into or out of Wichita Eisenhower National Airport in southeast Kansas have had three runways to choose from: 1L/19R, 1R/19L, and 14...
From ACM News
A New Way to Track Down Bugs Could Help Save Iot
On a clear day this summer, security researcher Ang Cui boarded a boat headed to a government biosafety facility off the northeastern tip of Long Island.
From ACM News
Nasa Just Proved It Can Navigate Space Using Pulsars. Where to Now?
Half a century ago, astronomers observed their first pulsar: a dead, distant, ludicrously dense star that emitted pulses of radiation with remarkable regularity...
From ACM News
When Wi-Fi Won't Work, Let Sound Carry Your Data
If you've ever struggled to pair your phone with a Bluetooth speaker or set up a wireless printer, you know that it's often easier to connect to a server halfway...
From ACM News
A Critical Intel Flaw Breaks Basic Security For Most Computers
One of the most basic premises of computer security is isolation: If you run somebody else's sketchy code as an untrusted process on your machine, you should restrict...
From ACM News
Physics Found Gravitational Waves. Now Come the Existential Questions
On September 14, 2015, at 3:50 AM Central time, a tiny vibration shuddered down the 2.5-mile-long arms of a massive machine in Livingston, Louisiana.
From ACM News
Researchers Fooled a Google AI Into Thinking a Rifle Was a Helicopter
Tech giants love to tout how good their computers are at identifying what's depicted in a photograph.
From ACM News
'oumuamua Probably Isn't a Spaceship, But It Could Have Passengers
Last Wednesday, at 3:45 pm, scientists from the Breakthrough Listen project trained the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia on 'Oumuamua—the mysterious, oblong...
From ACM TechNews
The Hard Math Behind Bitcoin's Global Warming Problem
A recent report calculated that the global electricity consumption of bitcoin mining would exceed that of the U.S. by July 2019, and of the entire world by November...
From ACM News
Unprecedented Malware Targets Industrial Safety Systems in the Middle East
Since Stuxnet first targeted and destroyed uranium enrichment centrifuges in Iran last decade, the cybersecurity world has waited for the next step in that digital...
From ACM News
It's Super Hard to Find Humans in the Fcc's Net Neutrality Comments
The Federal Communications Commissions''public comment period on its plans to repeal net neutrality protections was bombarded with bots, memes, and input from people...
From ACM News
Google Is Giving Away AI That Can Build Your Genome Sequence
Today, a teaspoon of spit and a hundred bucks is all you need to get a snapshot of your DNA. But getting the full picture—all 3 billion base pairs of your genome—requires...
From ACM News
The Genesis of Kuri, the Friendly Home Robot
Over the course of thousands of years, dogs have evolved alongside humans to be awesome.
From ACM News
Google's AI Wizard nveils a New Twist on Neural Networks
If you want to blame someone for the hoopla around artificial intelligence, 69-year-old Google researcher Geoff Hinton is a good candidate.
From ACM News
These Neurons Are Alive and Firing. And You Can Watch Them in 3-D
For patients with epilepsy, or cancerous brain lesions, sometimes the only way to forward is down.
From ACM News
It Takes Just $1,000 to Track Someone's Location with Mobile Ads
When you consider the nagging privacy risks of online advertising, you may find comfort in the thought of a vast, abstract company like Pepsi or Nike viewing you...
From ACM News
Intel's New Chip Design Takes Pointers from Your Brain
If you're asked to guess the emotion of someone in a video clip, neurons in your brain will exchange information in a flurry of electronic spikes.
From ACM News
Nasa Designed This Low-Tech Rover to Survive Venus
Venus is not pleasant. Its surface, approximately 850 degrees Fahrenheit, is hot enough for paper to spontaneously combust. Its atmosphere, an oppressive mix of...
From ACM News
Wanna Stop Distracted Driving? Make Cars That Watch Their Humans
Everyone knows that distracted driving is a problem, but it tends to fall in the "other people/not me" category of personal risk assessment among drivers.
From ACM News