Jack Ricchiuto writes about the new technology of printable batteries, which are useful when weight is an issue.

Quantum to Cosmos festival, sponsored by the Perimeter Institute

If you get TV Ontario you can tune in to the Quantum to Cosmos Ideas for the Future festival (Q2C) at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo… the discussions are being televised. I caught Cory Doctorow & others on the future of robotics tonight (show: The Agenda with Steve Paiken). During the show, the Agenda was taking chat comments and questions.

Sean B. Carroll (Molecular Biology & Genetics, U of Wisconsin) was on last night to discuss “Whose DNA is it?” The entire show is on the web.

Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, etc.) was on Tuesday night.

Natalie Angier (science writer) and Stewart Brand (The Long Now Foundation, The Whole Earth Catalog), among others, will be on tomorrow night.

People around the world are welcomed to follow Q2C events online at tvo.org/agenda and q2cfestival.com.As presenting media partner for Q2C, TVO will not only have extensive coverage of the festival for broadcast, but will also provide its web production capacity for live streaming of Q2C events. Some of the highlights include:

• Exclusive access to all the special lectures and panels taking place throughout the festival in the Mike Lazaridis Theatre of Ideas. These discussions will be available for live streaming and on demand.
• Special web chats: from October 19 to 23, TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin will broadcast live from Perimeter Institute and feature guests attending the festival to talk about the big issues in science. Producer Mike Miner will moderate a web chat each night discussing everything from space exploration to the importance of science.
• A daily blog featuring some of the guests from The Agenda with Steve Paikin at Q2C.
• A comprehensive timeline of the major milestones in space exploration.
• Video kiosks: anyone attending Q2C can leave a comment or ask a science-related question at one of two TVO video kiosks at Perimeter Institute and at the Physica Phantastica exhibit. Comments or questions and answers will be posted at tvo.org.

The need is growing for data centres and server farms to feed data-intensive operations. For the last two years, Iceland has been planning to attract those installations, where electric generation is carbon-free and the climate offers energy-free cooling. They’ve been adding data communications capacity that let them reach England in 17 milliseconds.

Banks have hundreds of thousands of servers. Their requirements generate as much carbon dioxide as the airline industry. I had no idea! One major investment bank has signed an agreement to move their servers to Iceland.

Hat tip to “Spark” on the BBC World News.

Astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery started their space walk at 18:12 Eastern time. You can see it on Nasa TV.

Two years ago, a bridge on Interstate Highway 35 West collapsed in Minnesota during rush hour, killing 13 people. I didn’t realize from the news stories that the bridge was being rebuilt at the time. Here are some views of the damage:

Noah Kuhn, who lived near the bridge, took some pictures.

Where Noah lives

Here’s one of his pictures.

Bridge collapse by Noah Kuhn

And another:

Bridge collapse by Noah Kuhn

And a third:

Bridge collapse by Noah Kuhn

Here’s a photo by Adam Meyer:

Bridge collapse by Adam Meyer

Here’s a photo by Heather Munro:

Bridge collapse by Heather Munro

Some people were trapped in their cars and couldn’t be reached.

Bridge collapse I35W

The collapse looks abrupt and very frightening.

Bridge collapse from the south

The consultant may be sued.