This Week in the Future, January 16-20, 2012

This Week in the Future, January 16-20, 2012 Baarbarian

Good thing all that noise about SOPA and PIPA worked, at least a little. Otherwise you might not get to see this week's great Baarbarian illustration--we might've had to replace all of our images with big black censored bars.

Want to win this Mexican/Martian fusion Baarbarian illustration on a T-shirt? It's easy! The rules: Follow us on Twitter (we're @PopSci) and retweet our This Week in the Future tweet. One of those lucky retweeters will be chosen to receive a custom T-shirt with this week's Baarbarian illustration on it, thus making the winner the envy of their friends, coworkers and everyone else with eyes. (Those who would rather not leave things to chance and just pony up some cash for the t-shirt can do that here.) The stories pictured herein:

• Borderworld: How the U.S. Is Reengineering Homeland Security
• Video: Rescuing Disaster Victims With Snake Robots Deployed By Dogs
• How Some of the Internet's Biggest Sites Are Protesting SOPA and PIPA
• Newly Found Meteorites Came From Mars, Scientists Confirm

And don't forget to check out our other favorite stories of the week:

• Did Global Warming Destroy My Hometown?
• The Most Amazing Images of the Week, January 16-20, 2012
• Video: How Flies Somersault to Safety Just Before You Swat Them
• Apple's New iBooks App for iPad Aims to Replace High School Textbooks
• FYI: What Happens if I Put Rocket Fuel in My Gas Tank?
• In Which I Designed a Part for My Truck, and Got It Built From Scratch
• Metamaterials Can Exert a Whole New Kind of Force
• Survey Establishes What Kids Want From Robots: Homework Help and Friendship