Maximizing Science

[pluto101]

I was in the middle of planning a grand scientific Joolean expedition when the update dropped, with no transmission of physical experiments (i.e., materials labs and goo pods). Most of the update makes such a mission MUCH simpler. I had a whole modular science pack scheme that involved six materials labs/goo pods per moon, with the lander switching each pod out before landing on a new body via docking. Now I can just transfer my data and scrub w/ the ML. Like I said, much simpler.

However, now I'm confused about how to maximize the efficiency of science extraction for a given biome. Previously, I would transmission spam digital experiments, and make two physical measurements. This netted me 100% of potential digital data, and maybe 90% of potential physical data, which I was satisfied with. Now, however, it appears that if I store my digital data, upon return to Kerbin I can retrieve 90-95% of potential retrievable science. This is fine - it makes my life easy, I only need to take one measurement per biome. The materials labs and goo pods appear to behave differently. I can only store one piece of data per biome for each science part, however storing this data will only net me ~80% of potential data for that biome upon returning to Kerbin. If I take two samples per biome, I could transmit one and store the other. However, there seems to be only a 5% difference in final science yield. Transmitting an additional sample first barely affects the amount of science extracted.

So, is there anyway I can store more than one identical measurement in a single mission? Is there a cap on the amount of science retrievable in one mission? How does the game calculate your science yield, and how to maximize it per mission?