This image, taken by equipment on NASA's Aqua satellite on the evening of August 11, 2014, shows a dozen wildfires burning across the state of Washington (as well as a couple in Montana to the far right). NASA Rapid Response MODIS
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256,108: the area, in acres, of forest that the Carleton Complex wildfire has burned across Washington state. Officials on Monday declared the wildfire “100 percent contained.”

1.7 million: acres of forest that have been scorched by wildfires this summer. It has been one of the quietest burning seasons in a decade.

81 percent: proportion of the American populace who have detectable levels of bisphenol S in their urine, which some studies suggest is almost as toxic as the now-banned bisphenol A chemical.

Plastic bottles

1,200: number of miles traveled by OR-7, the first gray wolf spotted in California in** 87 years**.

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The gray wolf hasn’t been seen in California in 90 years… until recently. Alexandra Ossola

99.5: percent of visible light absorbed by this material created by NASA, which hopes to use it as a coating for telescope components to absorb unwanted light.

An Array Of Materials NASA Is Testing In Space

The super-black material appears in circle “D.”

3,200 feet: the maximum distance at which a person can stand and still feel the effects of an LRAD, a military-grade sonic cannon capable of shooting powerful beams of sound. LRADs were used this week in Ferguson, Missouri to keep protesters away from police armored vehicles.

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Virginia Beach SWAT team members ride the running boards of an armored van to get into position to assault Building 1155. NASA/Sean Smith

1,975: total number of cases, as of Thursday, of Ebola in West Africa’s current outbreak, including 1,069**** ****deaths. Sarah Fecht reports on four predictions made by a Columbia University epidemiologist.

Ebola Virus.

Ebola filaments (red) bud from a cell (blue).

1,024: number of Kilobots created by a Harvard University engineer. These tiny robots can swarm and self-assemble into any solid shape that the researchers request.

12: number of hours it takes for the Kilobots to make a shape. This robot army ain’t going nowhere yet.

At Your Service

4.57 inches: the rainfall in Detroit last Monday. Nearly six weeks worth of rain fell on the region in one afternoon, and many other areas in the U.S. have been hit just as hard in recent times.

Detroit Flood.

On August 11, more than 4 inches of rain fell on Detroit in less than a day. Drivers abandoned their cars as many metro area highways turned into lakes.
The Week In Numbers