It’s the top of the week and time for last’s week’s Top 5 Strangest Stories in Science– the good, the bad and the ugly from your own science and engineering community.

5. Scientists Clone Human Brain Cells. We’ve come a long way since Dolly! This new breakthrough will greatly help the treatment of mental illnesses and nerve diseases.

4. The Most Amazing HD Image of Earth Ever Seen! It would be a crime not to lay eyes on this photo.  Courtesy of NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite.

3. VIDEO: First Ever HD Footage of an Individual Protein. Proteins are notoriously difficult to study, which is why this advancement is so thrilling.

2. Kepler Telescope Finds 11 New Solar Systems. That’s 11 new solar systems and 2,300 candidate planets awaiting confirmation. Not bad, Kepler, not bad.

1. The First Free-Standing 3-D Cloak. The invisibility cloak has already prompted a lot of buzz in the scientific community, but now scientists can make a 3D object in free space disappear . . . It just got real, folks.

(Left)  #1 Story: The unbelievable 3D cloak is one step closer to reality. Image from Science Daily.

Recently, one of the PMs in our office that raised an interesting question: Should visible tattoos be allowed in a professional workplace?

Back in the old days of engineering, you were expected to wear black pants, a white shirt, a tie, dress shoes, pocket protector, and the thick glasses were optional. Smoking was permitted and women weren’t.

Obviously, we’ve come a long way since the preferred dress in my office was khakis and a shirt with a collar (this goes for the women too).  And to my knowledge no one has ever said a word about my coworker’s visible tattoos ( both of his hands, wrists and forearms are  heavily inked). Should they?

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These days, it seems like new Exoplanets are being revealed left and right. . . So why would you care about an image of boring ol’ Earth?

You may have seen her plenty of times before, but never like this. Suomi NPP, NASA’s newest Earth-watching satellite, has captured one of the most beautiful images of Earth you’ll ever lay eyes on.

The high-res image is available in 8000×8000 pixel resolution, and it takes a while to download, but it’s totally worth the wait. Take a few minutes to recognize the true awesomeness of our blue planet.

Download it here.