This Week in the Future, October 5-9, 2009

This Week in the Future, October 5-9, 2009

The littlest gold miners, the tidiest bees, and the least fun Wii game ever. Welcome to this week’s Future.

Some of our favorite stories this week:

• The Chandra telescope caught a juicy paparazzi shot of two black holes smooching.
• At Tokyo’s annual geek-tech conference, a robot croons.
• Scientists figure out how to genetically engineer bees that are especially keen on doing housework — hivework? — to fight off the mites that cause Colony Collapse Disorder.
• Scientists figure out how to genetically engineer bacteria to mine for gold. Scientists then retire to a private island.
• A new $20 million effort to enhance airport security entails passengers standing on a Wii Balance board while they wait to get on their planes.

Illustration by the great Baarbarian