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Math Shows How DNA Twists, Turns and ­nzips
From ACM Opinion

Math Shows How DNA Twists, Turns and ­nzips

If you've ever seen a picture of a DNA molecule, you probably saw it in its famous B-form: two strands coiling around each other in a right-handed fashion to form...

Here's What We Know about Google's Mysterious Search Engine
From ACM News

Here's What We Know about Google's Mysterious Search Engine

President Trump thinks Google's search engine is "rigged." By featuring more mainstream news outlets and relatively fewer conservative sites in the results he sees...

Detecting 'DeepFake' Videos in the Blink of an Eye
From ACM Opinion

Detecting 'DeepFake' Videos in the Blink of an Eye

A new form of misinformation is poised to spread through online communities as the 2018 midterm election campaigns heat up. Called "deepfakes" after the pseudonymous...

The Four Ways that Ex-Internet Idealists Explain Where It All Went Wrong
From ACM Opinion

The Four Ways that Ex-Internet Idealists Explain Where It All Went Wrong

A long time ago, in the bad old days of the 2000s, debates about the Internet were dominated by two great tribes: the Optimists and the Pessimists.

Why the Future of Data Storage is (Still) Magnetic Tape
From ACM Opinion

Why the Future of Data Storage is (Still) Magnetic Tape

It should come as no surprise that recent advances in big-data analytics and artificial intelligence have created strong incentives for enterprises to amass information...

Trump Says He Will 'Address' Google's 'Suppressing' of Conservative News
From ACM Opinion

Trump Says He Will 'Address' Google's 'Suppressing' of Conservative News

On Tuesday morning, the 45th president of the United States woke up around 5:30am Eastern Time and decided to begin his Tuesday by berating the "Fake News Media...

It's Not Technology That's Disrupting Our Jobs
From ACM Opinion

It's Not Technology That's Disrupting Our Jobs

When we learn about the Industrial Revolution in school, we hear a lot about factories, steam engines, maybe the power loom.

How D-Wave's Quantum Machine Could Help Exotic Physics
From ACM Opinion

How D-Wave's Quantum Machine Could Help Exotic Physics

Picture a computer. Now I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you were probably thinking of your laptop, or maybe even your smartphone if you're being smart...

Future Elections May Be Swayed by Intelligent, Weaponized Chatbots
From ACM Opinion

Future Elections May Be Swayed by Intelligent, Weaponized Chatbots

The battle against propaganda bots is an arm's race for our democracy. It's one we may be about to lose.

Welcome to the Age of Privacy Nihilism
From ACM Opinion

Welcome to the Age of Privacy Nihilism

A barista gets burned at work, buys first-aid cream at Target, and later that day sees a Facebook ad for the same product.

Overtrust in the Robotic Age
From Communications of the ACM

Overtrust in the Robotic Age

A contemporary ethical challenge.

When Machine Learning is Facially Invalid
From Communications of the ACM

When Machine Learning is Facially Invalid

Observations on the use of machine learning and facial inferences to classify people using inexplicable data.

Navigating with Accelerating Technology Change
From Communications of the ACM

Navigating with Accelerating Technology Change

Mathematical tools such as S-curves locate inflection points in technology-accelerated social spaces; where we move next depends on our navigational skills.

An Academic's Observations from a Sabbatical at Google
From Communications of the ACM

An Academic's Observations from a Sabbatical at Google

How experiences gained in industry can improve academic research and teaching.

Is Software the Result of Top-Down Intelligent Design or Evolution?
From Communications of the ACM

Is Software the Result of Top-Down Intelligent Design or Evolution?

Considering the potential danger to individuals of rapid coevolution.

I Just Hacked a State Election. I'm 17. And I'm Not Even a Very Good Hacker.
From ACM Opinion

I Just Hacked a State Election. I'm 17. And I'm Not Even a Very Good Hacker.

It took me around 10 minutes to crash the upcoming midterm elections.

What Went Wrong With IBM's Watson
From ACM Opinion

What Went Wrong With IBM's Watson

What if artificial intelligence can't cure cancer after all?

Who Needs Democracy When You Have Data?
From ACM Opinion

Who Needs Democracy When You Have Data?

In 1955, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov published a short story about an experiment in "electronic democracy," in which a single citizen, selected to represent...

A Bold Mission to Touch the Sun
From ACM Opinion

A Bold Mission to Touch the Sun

On Sunday, August 12, NASA launched a bold mission to fly directly into the sun's atmosphere, with a spacecraft named the Parker Solar Probe, after solar astrophysicist...

Billion-Dollar Telescopes Could End ­p Beyond the Reach of ­S Astronomers
From ACM Opinion

Billion-Dollar Telescopes Could End ­p Beyond the Reach of ­S Astronomers

Every ten years, US astronomers set research priorities for the following decade.
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