https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/Dated notes from Ulix Knowledge on books, research, archives, software, and other developments worth interpreting.en-usTue, 08 Sep 2026 19:25:00 GMThttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/saturn-south-pole-decagon/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/saturn-south-pole-decagon/Tue, 08 Sep 2026 19:25:00 GMTThe jet moves more than 46 times faster than the ten-sided wave embedded in it, and the wave itself still appears to be evolving.Space & instrumentationhttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/what-is-memory-for/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/what-is-memory-for/Tue, 08 Sep 2026 19:24:00 GMTRemembering the past may be episodic memory’s most basic evolutionary function even if future and communicative functions came later.Memory & philosophyhttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/planet-atmosphere-confused-with-star/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/planet-atmosphere-confused-with-star/Wed, 02 Sep 2026 20:50:00 GMTJWST measures star and planet together. Around active cool stars, separating the two can become the hardest part of reading an atmosphere.Space & instrumentationhttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/more-you-know-more-questions/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/more-you-know-more-questions/Wed, 02 Sep 2026 20:49:00 GMTKnowing a little can make better questions possible, and those questions can help build the knowledge that makes the next questions possible.Learning & curiosityhttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/sardis-statue-paving-stone/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/sardis-statue-paving-stone/Fri, 28 Aug 2026 03:32:00 GMTA fifth-century BCE statue survived Roman Sardis because builders broke it up and laid it face down in a street.Art & archaeologyhttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/kusama-infinity-before-mirrors/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/kusama-infinity-before-mirrors/Fri, 28 Aug 2026 03:31:00 GMTBefore mirrors multiplied Kusama's rooms, she spent years painting and sewing repetition by hand.Art & visual culturehttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/imbalance-still-about-three/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/imbalance-still-about-three/Fri, 28 Aug 2026 03:30:00 GMTA new discrepancy bound grows so slowly that even a problem at an absurd physical scale barely moves it.Mathematicshttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/ai-tutor-retention-transfer/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/ai-tutor-retention-transfer/Fri, 28 Aug 2026 03:29:00 GMTRemembering a lesson and using it on a new problem are different achievements.Learning & AIhttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/cognitive-fitness-kpis/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/cognitive-fitness-kpis/Fri, 28 Aug 2026 03:28:00 GMTThree proposed KPIs make cognitive fitness concrete without yet making them validated measures of a generally fitter brain.Learning & measurementhttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/skyfall-fabric-radar-antenna/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/skyfall-fabric-radar-antenna/Fri, 21 Aug 2026 05:05:00 GMTSkyFall's radar has to see into the top few meters of Mars while its antenna survives being bent under the aircraft every time it lands.Space & instrumentationhttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/odysseus-cries-hears-own-victory/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/odysseus-cries-hears-own-victory/Fri, 21 Aug 2026 05:04:00 GMTIn Odyssey 8, Homer answers the hero's tears with a simile that puts the conqueror in the place of the conquered.Classics & Homerhttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/time-capsule-instructions/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/time-capsule-instructions/Tue, 18 Aug 2026 15:15:00 GMTSynthetic DNA may preserve the files until 2276. A decoder chip is there to help make sure somebody can still understand what the files are.Archives & preservationhttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/juno-io-subsurface-temperature/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/juno-io-subsurface-temperature/Tue, 18 Aug 2026 14:52:00 GMTAn instrument built to peer through Jupiter’s clouds has started measuring heat several meters down in Io’s crust.Space & instrumentationhttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/what-makes-an-ai-the-same-ai-tomorrow/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/what-makes-an-ai-the-same-ai-tomorrow/Sun, 16 Aug 2026 06:35:00 GMTA conversation can outlast the server process and even the model that began it. Memory is starting to shape what counts as continuity in AI systems.AI & philosophyhttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/ai-erdos-problems-wrong-ruler/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/ai-erdos-problems-wrong-ruler/Sun, 16 Aug 2026 05:04:00 GMTThe raw count is a bad benchmark. Some of the underlying mathematical results are stronger evidence than the score suggests.Mathematics & AIhttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/good-notes-show-what-you-dont-understand/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/good-notes-show-what-you-dont-understand/Sun, 16 Aug 2026 05:03:00 GMTA new experiment suggests that useful notes may improve learning partly by making overconfidence harder to maintain.Learning & noteshttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/first-herculaneum-scroll-read-without-opening/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/first-herculaneum-scroll-read-without-opening/Sun, 16 Aug 2026 05:02:00 GMTA sealed Herculaneum papyrus has been virtually unwrapped and read end to end while remaining physically rolled shut.Classics & manuscriptshttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/memory-without-provenance/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/memory-without-provenance/Fri, 14 Aug 2026 18:57:00 GMTAI agents are learning to remember. The harder problem is preserving where those memories came from, what surrounded them, and how they changed.Archives & AIhttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/read-differently-expect-to-remember/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/read-differently-expect-to-remember/Thu, 13 Aug 2026 20:33:00 GMTAn eye-tracking study found that reading for study changes what readers actually do with a text. The useful lesson is not simply to read more slowly.Reading & learninghttps://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/odyssey-bestseller-again/https://ulix.app/knowledge/briefs/odyssey-bestseller-again/Thu, 13 Aug 2026 19:00:00 GMTChristopher Nolan's film has sent thousands of readers back to Homer. Whatever one thinks of the adaptation, that is a reasonably good result.Classics