This Week in the Future, May 23-27, 2011

This Week in the Future, May 23-27, 2011 Baarbarian

We can all see that this mustachioed, overalled, caffeine-fueled Chinese (just look at his hat!) figure, who for legal reasons we shall keep unnamed, is running as hard and fast as he can. But is it toward those gold coins, or away from the pixelization wave that will turn him into a jagged collection of tiny squares? We may never know--but that shouldn't stop you from entering our contest to win this fantastic Baarbarian illustration on a t-shirt.

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 entirely too cool for their school, or place of business, or couch. (Those who would rather just buy the t-shirt can do that here.) The stories pictured therein:

• Chinese Prisoners Forced to Virtually Farm Gold in Video Games
• Newly Found Species of Bacteria Lives On Pure Caffeine
• Algorithm Smooths 8-Bit Pixel Art Into Cute, Bubbly Vector Drawings
• Book of Fungi Makes Us Want to Go Mushroom-Hunting
• Preparing for Permanent Climate Change, Chicago Invests in Warm-Weather-Ready Infrastructure

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

• As Congress Fusses Over Climate Semantics, the U.S. Faces a Weather Satellite Gap
• The Top 10 New Species of 2011
• FYI: Why Are Escalators So Dangerous?
• In Brazil, an Explosion in Computing Power is Revolutionizing Weather Prediction
• Video: Icelandic Ash Plume Blasts Through the Cloud Layer, as Seen from Space
• Video: Master Bladesmith Bob Kramer Visits PopSci to Show Off His Chops
• Electrons Are Incredibly Close to Being Perfect Spheres
• We Need a League Of Performance-Enhanced Athletes
• Cleaning Up Japan's Radioactive Mess with Blue Goo
• Google Wallet Uses NFC for Credit-Card-Replacing Mobile Payments
• This Time Lapse Video of the Very Large Telescope At Work is the Coolest Thing You'll See Today
• Archive Gallery: In Defense of Evolutionary Theory
• Testing the Goods: Bodum's Ice-Cream-Cone-Shaped Fyrkat Charcoal Grill
• Testing the Goods: iGrill, the Bluetooth Meat Thermometer For Your iPhone

And our 5th Annual Inventions of the Year contest, which has netted us some amazing creations:

• A Better Mechanical Prosthetic Hand
• A Crime-Fighting Armored Glove
• A Printer You Wave Like a Magic Wand
• A Safer Landing Pad for Snowboarders
• A Glare-Blocking LCD Sunglass Lens
• A More Effective Bedbug Detector
• A Low-Cost Test for Pre-Natal Diseases
• An Efficient Way to Treat Boat Waste
• A Light, Motorized Body-Board
• A Mirror That Measures Vital Signs