Can someone explain how the bars work in the new science dialogue area?

[flightmaster]

I'm just a bit confused about the differences between the solid colour and the greyed out colour of the same bar... Is it like a theoretical maximum?

[vidboi]

The solid colour is what you will get for the return/transmission of that data. The darker colour represents the maximum limit you can get from returning/transmitting that data multiple times. The grey part of the bar is what you can't get/have previously got. You can increase the amount that you can get using the lab module (reducing the amount of grey). Note that after transmitting the maximum amount of data possible you can still collect all the science remaining from returning the data.

[flightmaster]

Awesome, thanks for the info

The darker colour represents the maximum limit you can get from returning/transmitting that data multiple times.

Is that multiple times in the same run or multiple times over several launches? I'm actually really struggling to get the concept of the science haha, I'm probably overcomplicating it!

[Specialist290]

Awesome, thanks for the info

Is that multiple times in the same run or multiple times over several launches? I'm actually really struggling to get the concept of the science haha, I'm probably overcomplicating it!

To put it a slightly different way: The bar as a whole represents the total amount of value you can get out of that experiment. The lighter color represents what you'll get from this one run, and the darker color represents how much total value will be left over in the "science pool" for that particular experiment in that particular situation.