1.3 parts per billion: the maximum concentration of methane in the Martian atmosphere, according to a new analysis from the rover Curiosity (sadly, this means the red planet is probably not home to living organisms)
260 million: the number of surfaces in this astounding room designed by computer algorithms and 3-D printed from sand
2009: the year Google quietly began its quest for the self-driving car
25 inches: the height of the world’s smallest street-legal car
$800 million: the money Grand Theft Auto V made in 24 hours, a larger first-day take than any movie, game, or album ever released
4.5 meters per second: the maximum velocity of a sneeze
2 feet: the length of the blood clot doctors in California suctioned out of a man’s leg veins
$1,000: the cost of this easy-to-assemble Ikea shelter for refugees that can house a family of five
57 percent: the portion of TV drug ads in a recent study that exaggerated or omitted vital information
$70,000: the funding raised in just a few hours by a Kickstarter campaign for a 3-D scanning depth sensor you can clip onto the back of an iPad
497 miles: the distance a new kind of multiplexer can send light streams without losing data along the way (the technology may be able to save the internet from a crippling data bottleneck)
73 percent: the portion of U.S. college students in 2007 who said they had mixed energy drinks with alcohol in the past month. A new paper accuses Red Bull of meddling with research on the harms of using energy drinks as a mixer.
8 feet: the wingspan of a private drone that mapped flooded Colorado communities in the wake of last week’s torrential rains, flying in weather too dangerous for larger aircraft
