The emperor’s troops, blades wielded, have been staring up at an incredible mud cloud. For a second, there was simply wind, punctuated by silence. And instantly, there they have been: elephantine sandworms, with apocalyptic maws, effortlessly piercing the veil. Jaws dropped—each within the cinema, and on display screen—simply because the leviathans, adorned with Fremen fighters, careened into the sands of Arrakis.
Whatever your general opinion of the flicks Dune: Part One and the just-released Part Two, the sandworms, the ferocious, fictional animals of that desert-smothered world, are undeniably spectacular. Credit goes not solely to Frank Herbert, the late writer of most of the guide collection on which these movies are based mostly, however to director Denis Villeneuve and his crew of creatives, who introduced these primaeval beasts to life on display screen. They are a thundering presence that in some way feels actual, reasonably than one thing dreamed up within the minds of artists.
Of course, these sandworms aren’t actual—however that they appear so genuine made me marvel if, in truth, parts of them may very well be present in nature. In some methods, they’re unfeasible animals. But in different, extra shocking methods, they aren’t as legendary as you might consider.
Fear is the mind-killer, dimension is the worm-stopper
Despite their unyielding fearsomeness, the Fremen don’t regard the sandworms as monsters, however reasonably one thing extra benevolent, all-powerful, and nearly deific. They consult with them as Shai-Hulud–varyingly translated as “the eternal thing” or “grandfather of the desert.” Crucially, a biproduct of the sandworms’ biology is spice—a multipurpose substance that reinforces longevity within the Fremen whereas permitting navigators to plot secure passage between the celebrities. And the Fremen steadily make use of these gloriously gigantic worms as varieties of transport and, when the necessity arises, defence.
Scientifically talking, the spectacular dimension of these sandworms could also be their most obtrusive drawback. They can develop as much as 1,300 toes lengthy, which is twice so long as Seattle’s Space Needle is tall. That means they might be so inordinately huge that they might, underneath Earth-like gravity, not solely wrestle to maneuver at spectacular speeds—they might even be catastrophically pancaked. “It’s just kind of hard to imagine them generating enough energy to move, and to not be crushed under their own weight,” says Michael Werner, a biologist and worm knowledgeable on the University of New Mexico.
Their dimension additionally presents different points. Presumably, like many of Earth’s organisms, their tissues require oxygen to outlive. Worms lack lungs; as a substitute, they take in oxygen from their pores and skin. That oxygen must diffuse to all of the related organs and cells, however that might be problematic for a significantly bigger and chunkier worm.
“It’s just kind of hard to imagine them generating enough energy to move, and to not be crushed under their own weight.”
However, in Dune: Part Two, small orifices of some description may be seen beneath the scales of the worms when they’re pulled up by hooks. Perhaps these worms, then, do have some kind of lung-based respiratory system, and may retailer up oxygen in inside fleshy caches. They might produce other useful diversifications. Emma Sherlock, a curator and worm knowledgeable at London’s Natural History Museum, explains that some worms—like Megascolides australis, which may be present in components of Australia—have excessive quantities of oxygen-binding hemoglobin of their blood, which helps them survive the low-oxygen ranges beneath floor.
Drowning in countless sand
Another main challenge is the notorious lack of water on Arrakis. It’s so scarce that the indigenous Fremen drink their very own tears, put on specialised fits that recycle all their misplaced bodily fluids, and harvest inside water from the our bodies of lately killed comrades or not-quite-dead-yet enemies.
Earthworms require water to dwell. Without it, they dehydrate and shrivel up into crusty husks. “In fact, the desert is the only place earthworms can’t survive,” says Sherlock. You discover wriggly worms in ice-riddled environments, however not in hyperarid deserts. Unless the sandworms of Arrakis have been secretly moisturising themselves in underground aquifers—not an impossibility, to be honest—then they might have dried up way back.
A sparse eating regimen of spice-y meals
Water isn’t the one shortage on this forsaken world. The sandworms are seen to eat just about something that rhythmically thrums of their territory, from the spice harvester machines to the Imperial Sardaukar and the brutish Harkonnen troops. But to assist their prodigious dimension and prolific voyages by means of the sand, they must eat way more energy than these hors d’oeuvres. They might sometimes feast on deep-rooted crops, and even each other—however that may’t be their solely possibility, or they might quickly turn into extinct.
Their dimension is problematic. But, reasonably splendidly, it looks as if all the pieces else about them is completely affordable.
“Nematodes, a group of worms known as the round worms, can enter an alternative developmental stage called the dauer stage upon unfavourable or harsh conditions where they are surviving on no food for a long period of time,” says Anna Allen, a developmental biologist and program director on the U.S. National Science Foundation. They can do that for a number of causes, together with when there’s a lack of meals. The sandworms might do one thing related—current in a stasis mode till they detect close by prey.
Either approach, their dimension is problematic. But, reasonably splendidly, it looks as if all the pieces else about them is completely affordable.
Consider their terrifying, Lovecraftian maws. Instead of enamel, they’re stuffed with lengthy spikes, presumably hairs, that act much less like chomping enamel and extra like filtration methods. Indeed, that’s precisely what the artists behind the flicks meant. In a behind-the-scenes video, the enamel are labelled ‘baleen’, as in baleen whales, real-life marine mammals which have robust however versatile keratin hairs inside their mouths that filter their tiny fishy prey from the influx of seawater. It isn’t clear why the sandworms want this type of filtration—they appear to fortunately swallow lots of sand together with their snacks. But hey, possibly the zoologist on Arrakis that would clarify this in additional element was unwittingly wolfed up by one of their topics.
Psychoactive worm water
In Dune: Part Two, a Fremen is proven neutralising a juvenile sandworm in a water-filled basin, earlier than sticking a syringe down their gullets and extracting a blue liquid. This is a substance generally known as the Water of Life that, when consumed, both outright kills the imbiber or provides them potent hallucinations—visions of the previous, and of the attainable future.
“I am not aware of any animals or worms that produce hallucinogenic compounds for humans.”
If you suppose that sounds foolish, the Sonoran desert toad would love a frank phrase with you. These North American amphibians, which spend most of their time hibernating underground, dislike being threatened. If they get anxious, they excrete toxins that may, in case you’re a small-ish animal, induce demise. But in case you’re a curious and cautious human, you possibly can extract an ingredient from these toxins that, when smoked, can set off a potent psychedelic episode.
Some worms can produce pheromones that may appeal to different worms towards them. “I am not aware of any animals or worms that produce hallucinogenic compounds for humans,” says Allen. And no recognized hallucinogen may give you prescience whereas supplying you with a highlights reel of your distant previous. But the notion of an alien worm producing its personal mind-melting unguent doesn’t appear particularly bonkers.
The rhythm is gonna get you
The coolest factor of the sandworm’s biology stands out as the approach they use sound waves. When we get our first good rendezvous with a sandworm, in Part One, we hear it make a guttural, thumping noise. It’s advised by the film’s artists that the percussive, bass-heavy ‘voice’ of the sandworms is why the rhythmic beat of individuals’s regular strolling, and the cyclical thwacking of the Fremen’s devices, attracts them out of hiding: they recognise it as if one thing is, unwittingly or not, speaking with them.
Worms might not have ears, however many gravitate towards or flee from sounds that aren’t being made by worms. “A common hypothesis as to why earthworms rise to the surface after it rains is because the rain causes ground vibrations that sound similar to predator vibrations,” says Allen. Burrowing moles, for instance, generate tell-tale vibrations that worms can detect. Some do that by utilizing specialised nerve cells. Sound waves hit their pores and skin, inflicting it to vibrate, which in flip makes any inside fluids wobble about. That triggers these nerve cells, which ship out electrical impulses that make the worm transfer. Perhaps the sandworms have the same mechanism.
The wriggling wyverns of Arrakis are additionally capable of make the sand round them shift in a preternatural method. In a manufacturing video, the flicks’ sound crew talk about how they imagined the sandworms would transfer by means of the desert, whereas additionally trapping their prey. Inspired by quicksand, they determined that the use of directed sound to set off vibrations at particular frequencies would do the trick.
If you place a speaker underneath a pile of sand and blast out some choose tunes, you possibly can see this impact for your self—it actually does work, and the spectacular organic sound system of the sandworms actually makes you consider they might flip the ochre land into a brief fluid. “That’s very much within the realm of biological possibility,” says Werner.
Wriggly wonders
This underscores what issues most about Dune’s sandworms. We know, nearly intuitively, that components of them are unrealistic—however sufficient of their design is tangible, and based mostly on issues that exist, that they really feel actual, and are succesful of inspiring awe. They are exhilarating creations, ones that, as soon as glimpsed, indelibly lives in our collective imaginations. They are “close enough to something we understand on Earth,” says Werner, which provides substance to their wondrous nature.