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
World's Tiniest Machines Win Chemistry Nobel
Three chemists who created tiny molecular machines have won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their intricate designs.
From ACM News
Can We Open the Black Box of Ai?
Dean Pomerleau can still remember his first tussle with the black-box problem.
From ACM News
Deep Learning Boosts Google Translate Tool
Google's online translation service, Google Translate, will soon be using a new algorithm that is entirely based on deep learning, the company announced on 27 September...
From ACM News
S Sharpens Surveillance of Crippling Solar Storms
In the fight to protect Earth from solar storms, the battle lines are drawn in space at a point 1.6 million kilometres away.
From ACM News
Comet Crash: A Guide to Rosetta's Big Finale
The Rosetta comet orbiter will meet a sticky end on 30 September, but not before a finale that should see it gather the most detailed images yet of 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko—or...
From ACM News
Daring Chinese Telescope Is Poised to Transform Astronomy
Set in a remote natural depression in the mountainous region of Guizhou, China, the world's largest single-dish telescope is on the brink of sparking a new era...
From ACM News
Worldwide Brain-Mapping Project Sparks Excitement, and Concern
Worries include how to coordinate research programs and resources from different countries.
From ACM News
Geneticists Attempt to Heal Rifts with Aboriginal Communities
In 1938, anthropologists Norman Tindale and Joseph Birdsell set off on an 18-month, 29,000-kilometre expedition to survey Australia's indigenous groups.
From ACM News
Mars Contamination Fear Could Divert Curiosity Rover
Four years into its travels across Mars, NASA's Curiosity rover faces an unexpected challenge: wending its way safely among dozens of dark streaks that could indicate...
From ACM News
Print Your Own 3D Lucy to Work Out How the Famous Hominin Died
The world's most famous fossil is now open source. 3D scans of Lucy—a 3.18-million-year-old hominin found in Ethiopia—were released on 29 August, allowing anyone...
From ACM News
Beyond Terminator: Squishy 'octobot' Heralds New Era of Soft Robotics
A squishy octopus-shaped machine less than 2 centimetres tall is making waves in the field of soft robotics.
From ACM News
Brain's Chemical Signals Seen in Real Time
Neuroscientists have invented a way to watch the ebb and flow of the brain's chemical messengers in real time.
From ACM News
'radically Rewritten' Bacterial Genome nveiled
Synthetic biologists report the most far-reaching rewiring yet of a bacterial genome.
From ACM News
Let the Structural Symphony Begin
Like other structural biologists, Eva Nogales works in extraordinary times.
From ACM News
Crispr's Hopeful Monsters: Gene-Editing Storms Evo-Devo Labs
Most summers since 1893, young developmental and evolutionary biologists have flocked to Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to master the tricks of their trade.
From ACM News
Spiking Genomic Databases with Misinformation Could Protect Patient privacy
Large genomic databases are indispensable for scientists looking for genetic variations associated with diseases. But they come with privacy risks for people who...
From ACM News
Artificial Black Hole Creates Its Own Version of Hawking Radiation
Black holes are not actually black. Instead, these gravitational sinks are thought to emit radiation that causes them to shrink and eventually disappear.
From ACM News
The Bandwidth Bottleneck that Is Throttling the Internet
On 19 June, several hundred thousand US fans of the television drama Game of Thrones went online to watch an eagerly awaited episode—and triggered a partial failure...
From ACM News
Beyond Crispr: A Guide to the Many Other Ways to Edit a Genome
The CRISPR–Cas9 tool enables scientists to alter genomes practically at will.
From ACM News