Research proposal / historical constraints
Give an investigator the research available by 1900 and ask them to derive a result discovered later. A language model may already know that result from training, even when the supplied archive doesn't contain it.
Research proposalSources available by 1900
Later discoveries withheld
Derive a later result using the earlier record
In this alternative 1935, mineral partitions appear to close after being cut, provided a chemical gradient is maintained. The author proposes reversing that gradient to distinguish competing explanations.
Read the paper ↗Correction entered
Independent confirmation
Shared timing correction
All the stations applied the same environmental timing correction. The supposed independent confirmations could therefore share the same error.
Read the correspondence ↗Computation / running model
The Gray–Scott model simulates two reacting concentrations. You can change the feed rate or removal rate to see which patterns survive.
Open the model ↗The index starts with familiar fictional objects, including the animated portraits of Hogwarts and the instruments of Star Trek. Technical notes ask what would actually be required to construct a version of each.
A mind exists for twelve seconds. An outside observer collects its reports and tries to determine what can be learned from an experience that ends before it can be revisited.
More papers and fragments ↗Working specimens / two different investigations
In one invented laboratory, the same signal produces different event counts. In a real optical demonstration, a blocked lamp leaves its complementary color on the screen. Both apparatuses can be operated in the browser.
A station registers two closely spaced discharges. A rapid detector counts both; a slow integrator reports one sustained episode. The meeting must decide whether the disagreement concerns the world or the word event.
Three colored lamps illuminate an object and a white screen. Turn off any lamp or move the obstruction to see why blocking red leaves a cyan shadow.
Two instruments, two ways of disagreeing about the evidence.
An index of imagined papers, working instruments and questions worth returning to.
Working folios ↗