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
Amateur Astronomers Scour the Sky For Government Secrets
Earlier this year Iran's defense minister put the world on notice: His nation had developed the ability to "easily" watch spacewalking astronauts from the ground...
From ACM News
Pentagon Looks to Dna from Plants to Foil Electronic Component Counterfeiters
Counterfeit electronics embedded in missile guidance systems and hundred-million-dollar aircraft have become a serious problem for the U.S. military and its contractors...
From ACM TechNews
Secret Computer Code Threatens Science
Although modern science calls for researchers to share their work so that their peers can verify the success or failure of experiments, most researchers still do...
From ACM News
Secret Computer Code Threatens Science
Modern science relies upon researchers sharing their work so that their peers can check and verify success or failure.
From ACM News
Controversy Surrounds Russia's Claim that Cosmic Rays Caused Mars Mission Failure
A heartbreaking, out-of-the-gate failure of Russia's sample return mission early this year created a wide circle of disappointment.
From ACM News
Snowflake Growth Successfully Modeled from Physical Laws
Windswept from cloud to cloud until they flutter to Earth, snowflakes assume a seemingly endless variety of shapes.
From ACM News
A Bit of Progress: Diamonds Shatter Quantum Information Storage Record
The quantum world and the everyday world of human experience are supposed to be two different realms. Quantum effects, as demonstrated in the lab, are usually confined...
From ACM News
One Thing Is Certain: Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle Is Not Dead
What Einstein's E=mc2 is to relativity theory, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is to quantum mechanics—not just a profound insight, but also an iconic formula...
From ACM Opinion
The Coming Entanglement: Bill Joy and Danny Hillis
Digital innovators Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, and Danny Hillis, co-founder of the Long Now Foundation, talk with Scientific American Executive Editor...
From ACM News
Infrared and 3D Vision Systems Combine to Help Pilots Avoid Crash Landings
When large airliners approach an airport for a landing, a combination of radio signals and high-intensity lighting shows the pilot exactly where the runway is,...
From ACM News
Wireless Sensors Monitor Brain-Waves on the Fly
A fighter pilot heads back to base after a long mission, feeling spent. A warning light flashes on the control panel.
From ACM News
Inside the Mind of a Video Game Champ
If there is one general rule about the limitations of the human mind, it is that we are terrible at multitasking.
From ACM TechNews
How Siri Makes Computers (and Coders) More Human
Siri, a program in the latest Apple iPhone that can carry out a wide spectrum of vocal commands without requiring training or special syntax from the user, stands...
From ACM News
The $1,000 Human Genome?
The race to the $1,000 genome heated up today as Life Technologies, based in Carlsbad, Calif., announced it will debut a new sequencing machine this year that...
From ACM News
One-Atom-Tall Wires Could Extend Life of Moore's Law
There may be a bit more room at the bottom, after all.
From ACM News
Tiny Biocomputers Move Closer to Reality
Several research groups are developing DNA-based circuits that could one day monitor and treat disease from inside the body.
From ACM News
Did a U.s. Radar Research Station Disable Russia's Phobos Probe?
Soon after the ill-fated Phobos-Grunt spacecraft stalled in Earth orbit, a former Russian official implicated "powerful American radars" in Alaska. Is there a...
From ACM News
Cyberwar Most Likely to Take Place Among Smaller Powers, Experts Say
Most Americans who worry about cyberwarfare are concerned that it will be directed against the United States. But the truth is that cyber conflict is far more...
From ACM News
Panoramic Tool Lets sers Observe Dynamic Imagery
New imagery available through Carnegie Mellon's GigaPan Time Machine lets users move in space and time to explore the sun, a beehive, or the chlorophyll content...
From ACM News