At NASA’s White Sands Complex in New Mexico. Robert LaFon/NASA
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A Galaxy Far, Far Away

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows numerous galaxies, with z8_GND_5296 boxed in red.

7.5: the redshift of light from the farthest-ever confirmed galaxy (it’s so distant, it shows us what was happening just 700 million years after the Big Bang)

21 days: the time these “pillownauts” spent lying in bed to help scientists study the effects of spaceflight on the human body

French Pillownauts Bedresting For ESA

622 megabits per second: the download rate of NASA’s successful Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration—the first time NASA and the moon have communicated via lasers

Lunar Lasercomm Ground Terminal

At NASA’s White Sands Complex in New Mexico

7.5 mm: the thickness of the new iPad Air

iPad Air

100 feet: the length of the world’s first solar-panel sidewalk

Solar Sidewalk

George Washington University land use planner Eric Selbst posed by the university’s solar sidewalk while it was under construction.

7 percent: the decrease in a man’s walking speed when he strolls with his girlfriend

$960: the price of the Black Diamond Halo 28 JetForce, a backpack that can save you from an avalanche

Jetforce Technology Backpack

12 years: the apparent age difference between breast tissue near breast tumors and tissue elsewhere in the body

74 percent: the portion of human breast milk samples purchased online that were contaminated with bacteria such as E. coli in a recent study

Breast Test

In a recent study, researchers examined 101 samples of breast milk that they purchased on an open exchange website.

62 percent: the accuracy with which a new algorithm can predict your ethnicity based on bacteria from under your gums

23,000 years: the age of the world’s oldest boomerang (what makes boomerangs come back?)

82 feet: the distance at which Russia’s new amphibious assault rifle can hit a target underwater at a depth of 100 feet

Tula Instrument Design Bureau’s ADS

$10: the cost to turn your smartphone into a digital microscope

The Week In Numbers

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