WEBVTT - The Science of Dune: Biology 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.000 Welcome to stuff to blow your mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:23.560 Works dot com. Disembarkation disembarkation notice to all passengers arriving 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:28.080 on Station Oracus. The Dune Planetary Tourism Consortium, funded by 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:31.560 the great generosity of the most noble House Hardconed, would 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:34.960 like to welcome you to Planet Aracus. Aracus is a 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:39.120 dry place. Please remember to conserve water whenever possible. It 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:41.880 is recommended that you do not venture outside without a 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:45.519 properly fitted still suit to recycle your sweat, urine and 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.680 vegal moisture. When traveling beyond the shield wall, remember always 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:52.199 to watchful where I'm signed by keeping the mind. The 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:57.640 three ahs, hissing, heaving and high energy discharge, A hissing 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.880 sound in the sand, heaving up with display sediment, and 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:04.400 high energy setting discharge from the dunes may all indicate 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:06.840 that the sand worm is here and the event of 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:10.640 worm signed. Do not activate shields and proceed immediately to 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:14.919 the nearest cave building or evacuation orn't thought or local 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.920 vendors and kiosks found throughout Station Iraqis are in the 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:21.920 best place to purchase steel suits, frank hits, and individually 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:26.039 packaged worm thumbers. And duty free prices. Please remember also 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:30.800 the spice must flow. Anyone suspected of sabotaging, inhibiting, or 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:34.399 interfering with spice production may be subject to penalties up 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:40.360 to and including lactatorial remuneration on gaining prime or personal evaporation. 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:47.240 Please enjoy your say among the dunes. Hey, he wasn't 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.000 a stuff to blow your mind. My name is Robert 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:51.880 Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And this is episode two 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.920 in our exploration of the science of Done, the science 0:01:56.040 --> 0:02:00.960 of Frank Herbert's sci fi classic Done, which is celebrating 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:04.240 its fiftieth anniversary this year. Yeah, so if you missed 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:06.720 the first part, you should go back and listen to 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.280 that first part one where we talk about the technology 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:11.320 of doing, and we we talked about some important sort 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:14.160 of introductory materials to the universe of Done. If you're 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:17.440 not familiar with it, we highly recommend that you check 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:20.119 out that part first before you listen to this one. 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:22.800 But if you just want to get thrown right into 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:26.160 the middle, here we are. Yeah, last time we talked 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:28.440 about but Larry and Jehad, we talked about still suits, 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:30.440 We talked about order thoptors and a little bit about 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:35.760 the Holtzman effect, whatever that is. But yeah, this time 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:38.919 we're going to talk more about the the living science 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:43.920 of Done, about the biology and ecology of the planet Iracus. 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:49.160 And one of the coolest things about the Done universe 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.080 has got to be the sandworms. Yes, I imagine that 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:56.280 is one of, if not the key aspects of the 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:59.000 franchise that come to people's minds when they think of Doing. Yeah. 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:02.239 I So, I just finished reading this book a few 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:06.680 weeks ago, and I loved it. I absolutely adored this book. 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:10.560 As I said in the last podcast, it frequently struck 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:13.680 me as just amazingly fresh for a fifty year old book. 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:16.760 It's full of ideas that you don't encounter elsewhere. It 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:21.280 just felt very original and unique and different. But the 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.360 moment where the book really kicked into gear for me 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:28.160 was the first sandwarm attack. And this is when they're 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.280 going out to observe spice harvests. Correct. Yeah, So I 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:33.959 want to kind of put you the listener into the 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.520 moment of the sandwarm attack. So imagine you're one of 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:42.560 a group of twenty six spice miners working on a 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:44.960 patch of spice in the deep deserts. So you're out 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:48.760 there among the dunes. The heat is high, the sun's 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:52.280 bearing down on you. You've got your protective still suit on. 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:56.200 You're working the harvester machine, trying desperately to get this 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:59.480 spice going. And you've you've been at it for several minutes, 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:03.600 and over head there's this enormous cargo aircraft. I suppose 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.440 it would be some type of ornithopter with flapping wings, which, 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.320 as we discussed in the last last episode, doesn't make 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:12.400 a lot of aerodynamic sense, but okay, uh, And it's 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:15.760 called a carryall. It hovers nearby, waiting to lift you 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:19.920 off at a moment's notice, and preferably at the last 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:23.080 possible minute, to maximize the profits, because you've got to 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.080 get as much spice as you can. The spice is important. 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:30.960 The spice must flow, the universe needs it. But a 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:35.360 worm will come. The worm always comes it. Here's the harvester. 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:38.760 It knows where you are and the moment you start working, 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:42.640 it's on its way. Now. With proper precautions, you'll lift 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:45.240 off at just the right moment. You'll get the maximum 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:48.800 spice and you'll avoid the worm. But if you're not 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:52.200 able to lift off in time, you may notice a 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:55.440 hissing sound in the sand sliding, you know, it's sand 0:04:55.480 --> 0:05:00.640 sliding against sand. In the background, you might a static 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:03.680 discharge in the air, and eventually you're gonna notice an 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:06.880 upheaval of sand is the worm rises to the shallows 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.720 of the desert. And then finally you see, and it's 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:14.080 probably the last thing you see, a great gaping circular mouth, 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:17.680 maybe up to eighty meters wide, emerging from the dunes, 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:21.880 spreading open, closing over you, and swallowing you and your 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:25.920 friends and your mining vehicle all in one bite. It's 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:29.000 quite a site, and as far as sound goes, we 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:31.120 do want to give a quick thanks to Chris Knife 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:35.240 double O seven. He's on band camp as Cheesy Nervosa. 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:37.800 Will include a link to his account on the landing 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.200 Bait for this episode. But he does a lot of 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:45.000 cool ambient tracks where he gets the ambiance from from 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:47.719 various sci fi properties, and so this was the track 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.520 that we used. Hear was Dune sand Worm Ride. Yeah, 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:54.599 so I love the sandworms. I love the sandworms scenes 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:58.120 in the book. When we first encounter sandworms in the book, 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:00.880 it's there merely as a threat. You know, this this 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.640 huge terrifying beast that lives in the desert. It's you know, 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:09.280 it's a gigantic snake eel worm type creature that it's 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:11.320 sort of like the monsters and tremors. You know. It 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:14.920 lives under Yeah, it lives under the ground. It can 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:17.479 hear where you are. You know, it might be hundreds 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:20.559 of meters long. They're so huge you can't fight them off. 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:24.200 There's no way to avoid them except to run. Yeah, 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:28.160 and I've seen it describe that that the Frank Herbert 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.640 sandworms are are kind of like dragons, and but but 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:34.200 not nearly in just the threat aspect. Not just a 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.640 monstrous dragon, but a celestial dragon, because they're ultimately the 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:41.040 gateway to wisdom. Yeah, that's true. Because I don't want 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:43.200 to spoil too much. But then later on in the book, 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:45.880 we learned that the desert dwellers of the planet Iraq 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:50.360 is the Fremen, have a more complex relationship with the sandworms. 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:53.680 It's not just you know, here's this huge, threatening creature 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:57.400 that we have to avoid. They have a sort of 0:06:57.440 --> 0:06:59.360 a bit of a back and forth. I don't want 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.960 to say too much more, but it's really interesting, and 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:05.560 so I thought we should talk about the sandworm. What 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.640 is this organism as it's imagined in the Dune universe, 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:12.160 and how has this changed the way we think about 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:15.400 aliens and science fiction and what what analogies can we 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:19.240 make to real world life forms? Yeah, and for starters, 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:21.720 let's just go ahead and roll through what we know 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:24.680 from from Frank Herbert's books. And again it's one of 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:27.440 those cases where Herbert throws a lot of information at 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:29.600 you about how sand worms work, but then when you 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:31.960 add it all up right, you realize you don't know 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:35.760 key things. Um, here's what we know. The sand worm 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.880 or shy hallud I believe that is the fleming term 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:43.280 a creature. Again, you utterly unique to iraq Us, totally 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:45.920 tied to a complex life cycle on the desert planet. 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:50.480 Links exceed four hundred meters, width of a hundred meters 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:52.880 at the thickest point, perhaps as long as the thousand 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:57.080 meters in the deep isolated parts of the desert mouth. 0:07:57.160 --> 0:07:59.920 Diameter is probably about eighty ms, so when it's open 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:02.800 and lined with a thousand or more carbo silica crystal 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:06.360 teeth um. A typical worm consists of one to four 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:11.360 hundred segments, and each segment possessed its own nervous system. 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:14.960 Something to keep in mind for later. Now, what Herbert 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.320 didn't tell us. He didn't tell us whether sand mourns 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.200 lay eggs. They he didn't tell us if they're male 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:23.760 and female, how reproduction occurs at all. He didn't tell 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:26.200 us if it's a definitively if it's a vertebrate or 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:29.520 an invertebrate. He didn't explain the physics of how it moves, 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:31.960 and he didn't tell us what it eats. I would 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:35.680 be surprised if it's vertebrate, simply because I think of 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:39.240 vertebrate as a category belonging to Earth life. I mean, 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.040 I think it might have some kind of internal, you know, 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:45.280 rigid structure. But it's weird to think about those, you know, 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:49.080 those peculiarities of evolution that seems so ubiquitous on Earth. 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:52.520 We just assume their natural categories. But I mean, who 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:55.160 knows if a alien life form is likely to have 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:58.120 a backbone, right, And I think that ultimately, the like 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.040 the segmented nature and the independence of segments, tends to 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:05.920 imply something that is inherently invertebrate. But but again, he 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:09.280 doesn't draw a distinct line in the sand Well, then 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:11.200 to learn more about the sand worm, I think we're 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:13.240 gonna have to turn back to our old friends that 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:15.760 we mentioned in the last episode, a couple of books 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:18.559 that we used as resources. So one of these is 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:22.480 going to be The Science of Doune, edited by Kevin R. Grazier, 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:26.360 and then the other one is the Dune Encyclopedia, right right. 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.760 That one's compiled by Dr Willis E. McNelly, and that 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.120 came out in eighty five. It's out of print, but 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:36.199 you can still find used copies in various places. Um, 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:38.880 and I got mine online for like, you know, fifteen 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:40.760 or twenty bucks, so it's it's still out there and 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.959 it's not like an out of your reach collector's item. 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.160 In particular, that the explanations for sand worms from these 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:50.360 two books. From Done Encyclopedia, we have an explanation by 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:54.920 Maureen A. Shifflet, and Uh in the Science of Done 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:59.280 we have a sybil hetchel pH D's explanation from her 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:03.600 piece the Biology of the Sandworm. Now I'm actually gonna 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:10.240 start with the Dune Encyclopedia explanation from Marine Shifflet. Uh. 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:14.679 Shifflet goes ahead and defines both male and female sandworms 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:20.160 the ladder somewhat smaller than the males, with the secondary 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:25.520 segment of each worm containing its reproductive system, and she 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.440 posits that at age one thousand, because these are longer 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:31.360 than creatures. The female develops an egg sac in her 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:37.160 reproductive system, constructs a deep, massive nest, and then attracts 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:40.720 a male with rhythmic thumping. Now this is key because 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:45.120 in the in Dune we see people attracting or distracting 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:48.400 a worm by using a mechanical thumper. Right, yeah, that's 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:50.360 one of the technologies we could have talked about in 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:52.360 the last episode, but I guess we just didn't have time. 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:55.640 The thumper is a sort of you might think of 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:59.400 it as a defensive decoy mechanism out in the desert, 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:01.960 where if you want to draw off a sandworm, or 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:05.520 perhaps even attract a sandworm, you put this thing down 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:08.200 on the ground and it starts beating on the sand 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:12.319 to say come on over. Yeah, with a rhythmic pattern, 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:14.960 because if you you know, there's like the thing if 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.839 you gotta walk without rhythm, yeah, you know, unless you 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.000 want to attract the worm. So yeah. One of the 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:21.720 things that's frequently mentioned in the book is that if 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:23.680 you want to walk across the sand and not attract 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:26.360 the worm, you have to walk without rhythm. You have 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.800 to walk without any kind of uh cadence to your walk. 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:31.560 And I love how they bring up the fact that 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:34.000 this is so much harder to do than it sounds 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:38.120 like like the characters are just exhausted from trying to 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:41.720 walk without maintaining a rhythm of their gait. Right, And 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:44.959 so she ties this into the into the lifecycle of 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:49.000 the worm by saying that it's that kind of rhythmic 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:54.319 thumping but not only indicates something unnatural on the desert surface, 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:58.200 but perhaps the mating cry the mating call of the 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:01.960 female worm. So she says that then the male would arrive, 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:06.520 consumes the smaller female, just straight up eats the female 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:09.200 and then goes into a dormant state. And it's during 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:13.400 this state that the heavy duty spice fiber egg sac 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:17.680 remains intact and it's fertilized by the male's reproductive system. 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:20.240 And then when he wakes up, he's gonna spit that 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:24.720 fertilized egg sac out. What yeah, I mean, I've heard 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:28.679 of reproductive cannibalism, but what yeah, this is It's an 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:32.040 interesting uh uh. And again this is you know, her 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:36.480 taking Herbert's world and extrapolating on it and trying to 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:38.640 come with a scientific explanation for how it might work. 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:41.840 It's not this is not cannon by any means, but 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:46.760 it is interesting because we don't see sexual cannibalism occur 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:49.080 in nature that I can think of, where the male 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:51.880 eats the female, because generally the female is the species 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:54.760 and she may or may not eat the male after 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:57.480 he's served his purpose. But here we have the male 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:01.600 consuming the female. The Yeah, okay, I mean that just 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.800 makes me wonder if this almost would start to play 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:07.280 with the definitions of what counts as male and what 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:10.040 counts as female in a species. Yeah, I would. I 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:12.679 feel like I would feel more comfortable with this example 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:16.080 of the genders were reversed and the primary primarily the 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:20.160 sandworms are are female. But but you know, either way, 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.959 the the best example that comes to mind of something 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:29.120 close to this in the natural world would be um anglerfish, 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.080 where you have those great things. So you've probably seen 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:34.280 pictures of these from the deep ocean. They look like 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.480 movie monsters. Uh. They've got the crazy faces and that 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:40.880 they've got a little a little lit up fishing pole, right, yeah, 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:43.079 and those are the females. The females are the ones 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:46.880 we see pictures of the males um are essentially a tiny, 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:51.679 heat seeking sexual missile equipped with gigantic nostrils. Uh. All 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:53.840 they do is they swim out in search of a female, 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:57.040 and if he's lucky and most or not, they find 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:59.640 one and they bite onto her abdomen and hang on. Again. 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.520 These are the angler fish, real world organisms, nothing from 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:06.280 sci fi. And then there I'm looking. I just google. Sorry, 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:09.280 I looked. I just googled pictures of the male angler 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.160 fish attaching to the female angler fish. And it's pathetic. 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:16.240 It's you could go with that interpretation, because what happens 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:17.920 is not only does he bite on and hold on, 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:21.640 but their flesh grows together, their blood vessels connect, and 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:24.320 the male becomes a mere part of the female's body, 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:28.040 sustained by her systems. His eyes, fins, and some internal 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:30.960 organs all atrophy and just leave him as just this 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:34.280 fat flap of skin. This's this mindless thing on the female. 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:36.640 And this way, the male and his reproductive systems are 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:39.680 always there when she needs them, which is a necessary 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:42.840 adaptation in the dark, lonely world of the deep ocean. 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:45.920 That's fascinating. I've never read about this before. I was 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:47.960 really I ran across in the past year or two 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:51.120 and was pretty amazed by it. But that's certainly it's 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:53.120 the case where the male and female fuse into one. 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:56.520 And I guess you could interpret this consumption of the 0:14:56.720 --> 0:15:00.040 of the female sand worm is more of emerging and 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.160 a consumption since there's not according to her model anyway, 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:05.720 there's not really any nourishment to be gained from the 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:09.760 worm eating the other worm. Okay, so this is where 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:12.440 we start getting into a more complex life cycle. So 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:16.280 bear with me, everyone, Um, when a male sum so, 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:18.200 the male sand word comes to vomits up that egg 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:21.040 case and he takes off the egg case. Eventually hatch 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:25.920 catches into a legion of sand trout sand trout sand trout. Yes, 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.000 and now these these this is where we're getting back 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:32.160 into um, into the actual canon of of of Frank 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:35.120 Herbert's sandworm biology, because these are very much a part 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:39.040 of the series. Yeah, there are sequences in Dune where character, 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:40.960 well at least one character I can think of, the 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:44.800 planetary scientist kinds. Uh. There may be other characters, but 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:48.000 not that I recall, at least kinds thinks about down 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.840 under the the dunes of sand, there are these massive 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:56.320 patches of life. Then there's moisture down there too, which 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:58.320 is sort of hidden from the surface, which is I 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:01.920 guess being trapped or used by these unicellular life forms. 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:05.240 And in this case we're talking twenty by six centimeter 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:10.640 unicellular organisms. But that's a big cell. You know, alien world, 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:14.560 different laws, right, um. But but yeah, their water scavengers. 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:17.000 So the idea here is that they're traveling out, they're 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:20.600 collecting water, they're bringing them back, according to UM to 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:24.720 this model anyway, to the nest site, and they're sequestering 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:27.400 the water. And here the water mixes with excretions from 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:30.880 the pre spice mass uh. And here the C t 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:33.400 U C two builds up as a byproduct, and this 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:37.440 eventually results in a spice blow explosion. And this is 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.440 very much a part of the books, where eventually the 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:43.800 pressure builds up and it blasts that precious spice melange 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:48.560 that's produced uh somehow by this sand trout nesting water 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.840 sequestering action blows it up to the surface where people 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:53.680 can say, hey, there's some spice there, let's go get 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:56.960 it all right, all right, So but it's not only 0:16:57.000 --> 0:16:58.640 people that want to come get the spice that also 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.080 attracts the sandworms, which get into um. And at this point, 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:06.000 according to Schifflet, the sand worms enter a pre metamorphic 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:09.919 stage during which surviving sand trout joining bodies, and as 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:13.760 metamorphosis sets in properly, each sand trout, also known as 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:17.399 a little maker among the fremen, becomes a segment of 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:21.480 a conjoined body that becomes a small sandworm. So again 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:24.240 we see conjoined bodies coming into play. Uh. And this 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:28.960 is this is certainly part of of Herbert's original model 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:31.240 for the sand worm. So this is fascinating because the 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:33.719 sand worm and that sense, it is sort of a 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:38.080 composite organism. Yes, very much so. Um and this this play, 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:39.600 I don't want to give any spoilers, but this also 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.760 plays out in rather unique and mind blowing ways in 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:45.560 the sequels. Okay, so how long does it take for 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.760 little sand trout joining together to become the gigantic shi 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:52.160 hlud like we see in the book? You know, before 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:54.480 they're they're a big sand worm out in the desert 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.800 over over a thousand years. Because it's going to take 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:01.520 that long corners. Shifflet here to segment for the segments 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:04.480 to take on. Uh, you know, the different properties such 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:08.240 as the tooth head, the reproductive system. If you're going 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.720 by her model, and during this time of environmental conditions 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:15.440 are not met, then the underdifferentiated segments can revert to 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:18.520 san trout. So it's kind of like those jellyfish that 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:22.080 can that can reverse age, right, can revert to the 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:26.040 earlier life form stage if things aren't going well. Yeah, 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:29.120 I like that detail that she throws in. And finally 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.280 the a sexual juvenile warm develops and it's twenty to 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:36.200 thirty long, and this is the form that fremen eventually 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:40.800 capture and drown to produce spice essence. More about spice 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:44.000 in this episode later that's coming up. Uh, most juveniles, 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:47.760 according to Shifflet, would become females, but it's possible that 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:50.760 it's possible that the environmental absence of a male is 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:54.600 what results in male development. In the book itself, we're 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:57.439 told that each male has a three four hundred kilometer 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:02.600 territory that it defends against at worms, and she has 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:07.399 a really interesting bit about how that combat would work. 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:10.040 How do the worms fight each other? If they're just 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:14.600 they're huge worms with big circular mouths. Well, she draws 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:17.120 on a on a on a detail that we'll discuss 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:19.800 in a minute. Um, but I guess let's go ahead 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:23.200 and hit it. How does someone ride a sandworm? Ah? Yes, 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:24.920 Well this is something we learned about later in the 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.639 book and it's very interesting. So the sandworm, like the 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:30.879 sandworms like we mentioned, have these segments on their bodies. 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:34.320 They have sort of scales that protects their soft, fleshy 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:37.720 inner tissues from the you know, the harsh exterior realities 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:41.520 of Aracus and all the sand So a Fremen who 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:45.359 is who is hopped up on spice and ready to ride, 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:48.119 will go out into the desert with some hooks and 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:52.159 attract a sandworm using a thumper, And if the sandworm 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:55.440 comes by at the right time, the fremen writer can 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:59.400 get the hooks under one of the sandworms outer plates 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:04.000 or these ales segments, whatever you wants, yeah, and then 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:06.800 pull it back. And what that does is exposed the 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:11.040 sandworms inner tissues to the external elements. Obviously, the sand 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:14.719 worm does not like this and says, oh no, and 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:18.280 it rolls over to protect the exposed part of its 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:22.000 body from the sand, and in doing so can lift 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:25.680 the rider up onto its back. And then once you're 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:29.400 going like that, the sandworm refuses. It doesn't resubmerge into 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:32.679 the ground while it's got a part of its body 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:35.160 exposed like that, because it doesn't want sand to get 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:38.359 in there and hurt it. So you can essentially ride 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:41.360 this sandworm around as long as you want until it's 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:44.480 just exhausted and collapses, as long as you've got the 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:48.040 hooks pulling back the plate. Right, did I describe that 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:50.639 about right? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, that's that's perfect. And and 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:53.440 so in shifflet trying to understand like what its teeth 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:57.360 are for, she draws on this detail and says, well, uh, 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:00.560 what happens when two males are are getting to combat 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:04.520 over territory. They're using those teeth to pull back each 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:09.399 other's segments, essentially wrestling that way. And uh, because again 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:11.920 sand gets in there, it's gonna irritate the flesh. And 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:14.960 she posits that in extreme cases this could result in 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:17.600 a viral infection that could kill a worm, but generally 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:21.040 the loser breaks away, So, uh, yeah, just grappling with 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:23.560 each other, exposing each other as inner flesh by pulling 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:26.640 back with the teeth and eventually forcing one of them 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:28.760 to give up and break. Yeah, and a lot. It's 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:31.640 like in nature on Earth, a lot of territorial disputes 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:35.320 between you know, angry males of species. They don't always 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:37.840 end in death. They just one of them is like, okay, 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:39.560 I give up. Yeah, if you can have it, you 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:44.159 can eat all the females in this region that you want. Um. Finally, 0:21:44.200 --> 0:21:47.119 a word on diet from Shifflet. Her theory here is 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:49.800 that the sand worm is a true autotroph that's an 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:53.480 organism that's able to to form a nutritional organic substances 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:58.119 from simple inorganic substances such as carbon dioxide. In this case, 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:01.679 the sandworm is producing all of the nutritional needs from 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:05.119 inorganic compounds on the planet's surface. The energy for this, 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:09.159 she says that it it drives the synthetic reactions to 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:12.960 completion just by by traveling across the sand, which causes 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:16.560 an electrostatic charge differential, which we do see in the 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:18.320 books with a whole You know, you see that you 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:20.879 already mentioned the static charge that tells you that a 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:25.600 worm is approaching and uh. Incidentally, she also uses this 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:28.480 as an as an explanation for one water would be 0:22:28.560 --> 0:22:30.639 fatal to a sandworm, and that it would cause the 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:35.000 electrons to discharge abnormally. Yeah. Now, obviously it can't be 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:38.760 that any massive water is fatal to a sandworm because 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:41.879 there there is some tiny amount of water on Iracus. 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:44.040 But it sounds like a large amount of water will 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:46.680