This Week in the Future, May 30-June 3, 2011

This week’s elegant black-and-white affair from Baarbarian might be a puzzler for some. Within this striking image are references to corpse-sniffing vulture detectives, brave elderly Japanese volunteers, and a world-record-setting jetpack. But that might not be obvious at first glance. Because it’s camouflaged. Get it? You can win this great design on a t-shirt, too, in this week’s This Week in the Future contest.

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:

• WWI-Era Dazzle Camouflage Could Protect Modern Military Vehicles Even Better than Old Ones
• German Police are Training Vultures to Sniff Out Dead Bodies
• Japanese Elderly Offer to Take Over Fukushima Nuclear Cleanup
• Video: Martin Jetpack Crushes Previous Record by Climbing to 5,000 Feet

And don’t forget to check out our other favorite stories of the week. We work really hard on this stuff!

• Video: How to Make a Truck Jump 332 Feet
• Pentagon Declares That Cyber-Attacks Can Constitute an Act of War, Deserving an Armed Response
• Drug Suppresses Recall of Bad Memories, Leaves Non-Bad Memories Intact
• A Spiraling Milky Way Look-Alike Shows What We Must Look Like From Extragalactic Space
• Student Designers Design a Tent Perfect for Camping Out on Mars
• Shredder Clock Destroys Your Money Unless You Wake Up
• This Is the Last Image the Spirit Mars Rover Ever Saw
• Microsoft Shows Off Windows 8: A Sleek New Tablet Interface, Coexisting With Regular Windows
• The First Clown In Space Shares His Photos With The World

The Winners of Our Invention Awards Contest Are…

• 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