The Week In Numbers: The Fastest Human, Nerf’s Longest-Range Gun, And More
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5 hours and 39 minutes: the time, from launch to docking, it took this week’s Soyuz crew to get from Earth to the International Space Station. A new world record!

9.48 seconds: the limit to how fast a natural human could possibly run the 100-meter race, according to a Stanford biologist. That’s 0.10 seconds faster than Usain Bolt’s current world record.

8 percent: the portion of humans that still have the bendy, chimp-like feet of our tree-dwelling ancestors (yes, 1 in 13 people!)

The Week In Numbers: The Fastest Human, Nerf’s Longest-Range Gun, And More

Funky Feet

1,100 degrees Fahrenheit: the heat produced by the Beam Down Tower in Masdar City, a fascinating experiment in concentrated solar power

The Week In Numbers: The Fastest Human, Nerf’s Longest-Range Gun, And More

Concentrated Solar Power

$1 million: the money asteroid mining company Planetary Resources hopes to raise on Kickstarter to build an orbiting space telescope that ordinary people can control from Earth

Planetary Resources engineers assemble an ARKYD 100 prototype.

Under Construction

Planetary Resources engineers assemble an ARKYD 100 prototype.

100 feet: the firing range of Nerf’s newest gun, which shoots MEGA darts nearly 55 mph

27 hours: the time this Australian police department spent making a 3-D printed pistol. The plastic gun exploded.

The Week In Numbers: The Fastest Human, Nerf’s Longest-Range Gun, And More

The remains of a failed 3-D printed Liberator gun

1953: the year a botched lobotomy left Henry Molaison unable to form new memories. His personal tragedy would eventually revolutionize neuroscience.

The Week In Numbers: The Fastest Human, Nerf’s Longest-Range Gun, And More

Henry Molaison

71 percent: the accuracy with which this beer-pouring robot can predict the future, three seconds in advance

$979: the price of the first office chair engineered to support the slouched backs and roving elbows of smartphone and tablet users

The Week In Numbers: The Fastest Human, Nerf’s Longest-Range Gun, And More

Steelcase Gesture

$5 million: the cost to produce a floating generator that harnesses energy from ocean currents

The Week In Numbers: The Fastest Human, Nerf’s Longest-Range Gun, And More

Aqua Turbine Teaser

30,000: the number of homes this awesome wave farm will be able to power

The Week In Numbers: The Fastest Human, Nerf’s Longest-Range Gun, And More

A Yellow Oyster 800 Wave Machine in Orkney, Scotland