Computer Science

The Trump administration has committed more than $5 billion to the Genesis Mission, an initiative targeting cancer research, semiconductor development, and quantum computing. The announcement pairs health research with strategically critical technologies, reflecting a push to accelerate American leadership in chips and advanced computing while funding cancer-focused science.

A computer science instructor has published a retrospective on cheating with AI tools in the CS240 course, describing how students used chatbots and what countermeasures were tried. The piece recounts detection difficulties and lessons learned about assessment design. It is drawing attention from educators and technologists debating how universities should adapt coursework to widespread AI use.

A 2014 paper recounts how Los Alamos scientists turned to the ENIAC in 1947 and 1948 to run Monte Carlo simulations of nuclear processes, a landmark moment in early computing. It details how mathematicians including Stanislaw Ulam and John von Neumann used random sampling on one of the first electronic computers to solve problems in weapons physics, laying groundwork for modern computational science.

The Voynich Manuscript, a 15th-century illustrated book written in an unknown script, remains one of history's great unsolved mysteries. Written by an unidentified author and named after book dealer Wilfrid Voynich, it has resisted centuries of decryption attempts by linguists and codebreakers. Science writers continue revisiting it because no cryptanalysis, including modern computational methods, has deciphered its text or explained its strange botanical drawings.

Communications of the ACM has published a piece reflecting on lessons learned from developing internet protocols. The article draws on decades of experience designing the standards that underpin global network communication, offering insight for engineers working on next-generation protocols. It is drawing attention from the networking and computer science community.

A newly circulated paper recounts how Los Alamos scientists turned to the Eniac in 1947–1948 to run some of the earliest Monte Carlo simulations, using the pioneering computer to model nuclear processes through random sampling. The episode is widely seen as a founding moment of computational science, showing how wartime computing hardware was repurposed for peacetime physics research and helped establish a technique now used across finance, engineering and beyond.

An essay in The Conversation revisits the 1983 film 'WarGames' to explain a long-standing lesson of computer science: keeping AI under control is a well-studied problem, not an unsolvable mystery. It argues researchers have long understood what is needed to keep automated systems from acting unpredictably, and the piece is being shared in cybersecurity circles amid ongoing debate over AI safety.

The University of Michigan will no longer require students to apply separately for its computer science program, removing a competitive admissions barrier to one of its most popular majors. The change comes as demand for the major has steadied after years of rapid growth that strained capacity. Students will be able to declare the major directly, a shift likely welcomed by those previously denied entry to the limited-enrollment program.

Computer scientists have long studied how to keep powerful automated systems under human control, and the classic 1983 film WarGames is being used as a reference point in debates about artificial intelligence safety. The Conversation examines what decades of research in computer science say about controlling AI, and why those lessons matter as modern systems grow more capable and autonomous.

In Melbourne, Australia, a biological computer built from living human brain cells is being maintained like a living organism — it must be fed, kept warm and cleaned every few days or it dies. The system, called the CL1, is made by an Australian company and is drawing attention as a striking example of biocomputing, where lab-grown neurons perform computational tasks.