This Week in the Future, March 14-18, 2011

Four of this week’s best articles are depicted in Baarbarian’s newest This Week in the Future creation, combining for a work of serene violence, with a spaceship. You could win a t-shirt with the painting on it–provided you follow our (incredibly easy to follow) instructions.

Here’s the deal: One lucky reader will win this week’s TWitF shirt. All you have to do is tell us which of these stories is your favorite and why, either on Twitter (follow us at @PopSci, and use the hashtag #TWitF so we can find you) or in the comments section on this post. One winner will be chosen through a complex algorithmic selection process (involving me putting a piece of duct tape indicating the winner on my computer monitor while blindfolded and possibly inebriated) and be sent this glorious t-shirt (which you can also buy here, if you’re so inclined). Here are your choices:

• Secretary Chu Says U.S. Administration Remains Committed to Nuclear Power
• New Silkworm Dye Method Could Help Build Silks With Medicinal Properties
• After Earth: Why, Where, How, and When We Might Leave Our Home Planet
• Can Next-Generation Reactors Power a Safe Nuclear Future?

And here are our other favorite stories of the week:

• How Nuclear Reactors Work, And How They Fail
• Archive Gallery: PopSci Fights Natural Disasters
• Meet Japan’s Earthquake Search-and-Rescue Robots
• FYI: How Does Nuclear Radiation Do Its Damage?
• How One Man Waged War Against Gravity
• FYI: Could a Layperson Land a Jumbo Jet?
• After Messenger Spacecraft’s Successful Orbital Burn, Mercury Now Has Its First-Ever Satellite
• Stunning Video: A Series of Cassini Images Stitched into a Swirling Saturn-Scape
• Scientists Say They May Have Found Lost City of Atlantis Near Spain