This Week in the Future, May 7-11, 2012

This Baarbarian illustration is done in a particular paint-like style, but the prepared food? That is photo-realistic. Because it’s disgusting.

Want to win this automated 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:

• Making Preserved Food Actually Taste Good
• Using Facial Recognition to Identify Unknown Subjects in History’s Great Portraits
• Nevada Issues a Driver’s License to Google’s Self-Driving Car
• NASA and SETI Rent a Giant Zeppelin to Hunt for Meteorite Over Nevada

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

• My Three Hours With the Most Violent Videogame I’ve Ever Seen
• The Goods: May 2012’s Hottest Gadgets
• The 10 Best Quotes From the Study That Proves Cereal Tastes Better With Milk Than Water
• We Asked Our Readers Why They Love the Samsung Galaxy Note
• China Takes Off
• South Korea Targets Smuggled Capsules of Human Flesh
• Do You “Possess” What You View Online?
• PopSci Q&A: How Nanoracks Sends Scotch, iPhones and School Experiments to Space
• Blueseed, the Floating City for Startups, Has More Than a Hundred Firms Ready to Ship Out
• Video: Bizarrely Realistic Japanese Robotic Buttocks Responds to Slaps
• The Most Amazing Science Images of the Week, May 7-11, 2012