Lip-Out Golf Physics, Orange-Lichen Fossils, Tonal Language Brain-Computer Interfaces, and Night Sky Heat Engines: Science Magazine Podcast Roundup

In this episode, Science Magazine explores four science stories: the physics behind lip-out golf shots and how near-miss putts defy intuition, orange lichens that preferentially colonize dinosaur bones to mark fossil sites, a brain-computer interface that decodes tonal Mandarin from brain activity, and a passive night-time energy generator that uses radiative cooling to couple with space as the cold sink via a Stirling engine. The podcast also previews a dance-your-PhD contest and other science features.

The episode begins by explaining the lip-out phenomenon in golf, including ballistic lip-outs where fast balls bounce off the hole, rim lip-outs where the ball circumnavigates the rim, and hole lip-outs where the ball seems to enter and then re-emerge from the hole. Researchers seek a unified framework for these behaviors by selecting axes tied to the ball's roll and the contact point, enabling a single model to describe both rim and hole lip-outs. A key takeaway is that while the math provides a way to describe the physics, it does not translate into a practical method to improve a golfer’s shot, though it offers deeper understanding of a long-standing puzzle in sports physics.

"it's a very demoralizing event" - Chris Bickle

Next, the podcast discusses a clever field study in which bright orange lichens preferentially colonize dinosaur bones, making fossil sites easier to spot from a distance or by drone. The lichens may prefer bones due to a unique alkaline, calcium-rich, porous substrate, painting fossilized remains in striking color that stands out against surrounding rock aged about 75 million years. This finding could help paleontologists locate bones more efficiently in challenging terrains, highlighting how organisms can unexpectedly assist scientific discovery.

"orange marks the spot" - David Grimm

The conversation then shifts to brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that decode tonal languages, focusing on Mandarin. Because tonal information matters for meaning, BCIs must interpret not only vowels and consonants but voice pitch and tone. The team used a patient with epilepsy who had temporary brain electrodes implanted to map Mandarin syllables, training the system on 400 tonal symbols. The result is a system that translates neural signals into live text, albeit at slower-than-speech speeds, with about 70% accuracy. This work underscores the need to broaden BCI research beyond English and non-tonal languages to serve hundreds of millions of tonal-language speakers worldwide.

"tonal languages are spoken by about 1.5 billion people" - Sarah Crespi

Finally, the episode covers a passive energy concept that uses radiative cooling to power a heat engine at night. The setup relies on the earth as the warm source and space as the cold sink, allowing a Stirling engine to operate with only a small temperature difference. The device is portable and can generate mechanical power, with potential applications in greenhouse ventilation and small-scale energy harvesting. The researchers acknowledge that at current efficiency, the power density is modest compared with solar during the day, but the concept represents a complementary approach to night-time power generation that leverages a naturally cold sky.

"you can get up to about 6 watts per meter squared" - Jeremy Monday