Science Friday - Triple Feature: Dune, Mars, And An Alien On Earth

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

Could A Planet Like Arrakis From ‘Dune’ Exist?“Dune: Part II” is one of the year’s most highly anticipated films, and it picks up where the first film left off: with Paul Atreides escaping into the desert on the planet Arrakis. It’s a scorching-hot world that’s covered in dunes, and home to giant, deadly sandworms.Obviously “Dune” and its setting are fictional, but could there be a real planet that resembles Arrakis? And if so, could it sustain life?Ira talks with Dr. Mike Wong, astrobiologist and planetary scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science, about what Arrakis’ atmosphere is like, the search for life in the universe, and what sci-fi films get wrong—and right—about alien planets.Preparing Astronauts For The Loneliness Of A Mars MissionNASA is preparing to send humans to Mars. Although the launch date has been pushed back over the years, the agency says it wants to get there in the 2030s. And it has a lot on its to-do list. NASA needs to build new rockets, new habitable living spaces, new spacesuits, and new radiation shielding, just to name a few items.But what if the one of the biggest challenges of these missions is not the engineering, but the mental health of the astronauts? Can all of the crew members get along with each other and stay alive over the course of three years in tight quarters and unforgiving environments? How will they cope with being separated from their families and friends for so long? And what lessons can they learn from astronauts who’ve lived on the International Space Station—and from our collective experience of isolation during the pandemic?A new documentary, out March 8, explores all these questions and more. It’s called "The Longest Goodbye," and it dives into NASA’s Human Factors program, which includes a group of psychologists who are trying to figure out the best way to preserve astronauts’ mental health on a long and demanding mission.SciFri producer and host of Universe Of Art, D. Peterschmidt, spoke to the film’s director, Ido Mizrahy, and one of its featured astronauts, Dr. Cady Coleman, about how NASA is thinking about tackling loneliness in space and what we can learn from astronauts who’ve already lived on the space station.Should The Aliens In “65” Have Known About Earth’s Dinos?Some science fiction movies, like “Alien,” are instant classics. A good sci-fi movie weaves together themes of science and technology with a gripping narrative structure to create a memorable story that leaves the viewer with something to think about. But some (many) sci-fi movies leave the viewer with one thought: “Huh?”The 2023 movie “65” is in some ways a reversal of “Alien.” Instead of humans coming to an alien world and getting attacked by aliens, in “65,” an alien that existed 65 million years ago crash lands on Earth and gets attacked by dinosaurs. Oh, and the alien is Adam Driver. What’s not to get?Sometimes, calling in a real-life scientist is the best way to wrap your head around science fiction. Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger, an astrobiologist at Cornell University, says that if there were advanced extraterrestrials near Earth during the age of the dinosaurs, our planet’s life should have been no mystery to them. That’s because around 300 million years ago, Earth’s atmosphere had abundant oxygen and methane, two of the building blocks of life. Kaltenegger’s own research has shown how Earth’s atmosphere during that period would have been visible through a telescope—and indicated an even stronger potential for life than Earth’s atmosphere today. She also saw “65” on a plane.Based on Kaltenegger’s research, should Adam Driver have seen those dinosaurs coming? In an interview with Digital Producer Emma Gometz, she shares how telescopes can spot exoplanet atmospheres, why Jurassic Earth’s atmosphere was special, and a few of her thoughts on “65.”Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

The new film, Dune Part 2, takes us to the desert planet Aracas. But could a real planet like Arachus exist somewhere? I keep thinking to myself, huh? You know, is that real? What exactly is right here? What are they getting slightly off? But it's all in good fun. It's Monday, March 11th.

You're listening to Science Friday. I'm SciFri producer Charles Bergquist. This weekend, Science won big at the Oscars, with Oppenheimer taking home seven awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and best actor for Killian Murphy and his portrayal of the Father of the Atomic Bomb. And even though Oscars weekend is over, we've still got movies on our minds. So today, a SciFri triple feature.

First up, Dune Part 2, then a new documentary on the mental health of astronauts, and what, 65, the film starring Adam Driver, got right and wrong about finding life on alien worlds. Here's Ira Flato. Our first feature, though, is the Blockbuster Dune, Dune, Part 2. And as you may know from the book and the movie, the story takes place on a planet called Aracas. My Lord Duke, welcome to Arrakus. A scorching hot world covered in what else, but dunes that are homes to giant, deadly sandworms. You wouldn't want to go down out there.

It's weren't territory. Could there be a real planet that resembles Aracus? and if so, could it sustain life? Here to talk about that is Dr. Mike Wong, astrobiologist and planetary sciences at the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington, D.C. Welcome back to Science Friday. Hey, Ira, it's great to be here. Nice to have you. You know, Mike, when I watch sci-fi movies like Dune, I'm always thinking to myself, come on, is there really any science behind here?

Do you think like that also? Yeah, it's hard to shut it off. as a professional scientist whenever I am watching the depictions of strange new worlds. And I keep thinking to myself, huh, you know, is that real? What exactly is right here? What are they getting slightly off? But it's all in good fun. And I really enjoy watching science fiction.

I'm a huge fan of Star Trek myself. And that's full of Strange New Worlds every single week. So, yeah, I don't turn it off. But I think it enhances the experience. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So let's take Iraqis, please.

and its famous giant deadly worms. Could there be a planet like this and have those big worms on it? Yeah, that's a really good question. So I think the concept of a desert world isn't too far-fetched. After all, you know, we know about worlds in our solar system that have less liquid water on them than Earth. Earth's surface is covered in about 70 percent, you know, is covered by liquid water. But you go to our next door neighbors, you look at Venus. Its water has long boiled off and escaped to space.

And then you turn the other direction and you look at Mars. And, you know, Mars is this cold, dry desert where a lot of the water that still remains on Mars is in a frozen state. So it's mostly ice. So, yeah, I think that the idea of a desert world is certainly valid. Whether or not it can host giant worms, you know, that's another issue. I see two things that I'd like to investigate. and poke at with the hypothesis that you could have giant worms on a desert world. The first is, what are they going to eat?

You know, this world Iraq is, it's said not to have any giant bodies of liquid water. We think about the largest animals here on Earth, the whales, you know, they're able to sustain their huge biomass because there are oceans full of krill and plankton and little critters that they can just gulp up and swallow. So what are these giant sandworms eating all day long? Are there smaller critters like in the sand dunes too? We're not sure about that kind of ecology from what is presented to us in Dune. The other question is, what are they breathing?

Where is all the oxygen in the air on Aractus from? Because the oxygen on earth is generated by photosynthetic life. We've got all these rainforests full of trees. We've got cyanobacteria, this blue-green algae in the oceans. They're all doing photosynthesis, pumping oxygen into the air. And that's the oxygen that we breathe. But Aracus is just a desert world, so where did all of its oxygen come from? Yeah, yeah, could you make oxygen?

Yeah, I think in the lore of Dune, Iraqis once had large bodies of liquid water because we see these salt flats on the world. So perhaps there was an ocean that evaporated and left these salt flats and maybe in that ocean. There were photosynthetic life forms that produced a lot of oxygen and the oxygen that is currently used by the giant sandworms today. is left over from that. Alternatively, you can also source oxygen from things that have nothing to do with life whatsoever. So you can split apart molecules in an atmosphere, molecules like water or carbon dioxide, that have oxygen in them.

And then when you split those up using ultraviolet light from the star that Arachus orbits, you can generate some amount of oxygen in the air. If it's not worms that are living on our mythical planet, what kind of life could a super dry planet like Iraqis sustain? Luckily, we have really dry places here on Earth that we can look to for examples. So there are all sorts of really inventive critters, especially microscopic ones, that can survive in really dry environment. So in the Otacama Desert, there are some really inventive microbes that sort of live within the salts crystals. And so I think that a desert world could still sustain some degree of microbial diversity on it. And indeed, you know, when we go, we send rovers to Mars, that's kind of the life that we're looking for.

We're not really expecting to see any cheetahs, you know, prowling Mars's surface. But we need really fancy instrumentation to try to spot evidence of microbial life in those soils. Let's talk about all the sand, right, that where the worms live, there's a huge. huge amount of sand. Could that form on other worlds? Yeah, actually, one of the coolest examples of sand on another world. Well, first of all, there is sand on Mars, but I'm going to go all the way out to the outer solar system and talk about Saturn's Moon Titan here. Titans are really fascinating world because in many ways it's kind of earthlike. It's got sand dunes. It's got mountains. It's got rivers and it's got precipitation too, but it's made of a completely different material. So

Titan is out in the outer solar system. It's super frigid there. The bedrock on Titan is solid water ice, and it's sort of like snows these organic, carbon-rich, fractal-like compounds out of its atmosphere. And so the sand dunes on Titan might be some combination of eroded water ice and this fluffy kind of organic, rich material that is sedimenting out of its atmosphere. So there's lots of possibilities for sand across different types of worlds. We're always looking for water, and you mentioned Titan. We may not have to go way out into outer space to find life, because it seems like it may be possible in our own solar system.

That's right. Yeah, we've got lots of really tantalizing environments in our solar system that we're really curious about in terms of its astrobiological potential, that it's potential for alien life. And so, you know, anything from, you know, the clouds of Venus, perhaps, all the way to, you know, ancient life living on Mars when it was more warm and wet and habitable to the outer solar system, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, namely Europa and Enceladus, respectively. These are moons that have liquid water oceans hidden beneath icy crusts. They're maintained in their liquid water state by tidal forces, the gravitational pull of Jupiter and Southern. Saturn, sort of flexing the interior of those moons, keeping them warm. And then, of course, Titan, that really enigmatic world orbiting Saturn with this organic, rich atmosphere, bodies of liquid hydrocarbons, methane and ethane on its surface.

They could potentially host weird forms of life that don't use liquid water at all. The possibilities are really endless. And I'm so excited for this next phase of planetary exploration that really sort of starts later this year with the launch of the Europa Klipper mission that go out to the outer solar system, return there and try to find evidence for habitability and potential life. From the way you're speaking, I'm thinking that you would think that there's more chance of finding life than not finding life. I guess as an astrobiologist, I have to be inherently fundamentally hopeful, right,

that there is something out there to try to find. Right. As a scientist, I try to say, I don't know, right? I don't know if there's life elsewhere in the universe. I'm going to let the data speak for themselves. When we go out there, when we sample these environments, when we take our microscopes and our other instruments and try to look for evidence of life, then I will say what the probability might be. But right now, we haven't really done a really good job of looking yet.

You know, we've tried a few times. The Viking missions in the 70s on Mars and, you know, curiosity and perseverance are doing their thing these days, but we haven't really investigated many of these worlds, Europa and Celadus Titan, in the kinds of way that could actually find life. And so once we do that, then I'll be more confident about saying, oh, yeah, there is, you know, this probability of finding life versus that probability. As a scientist, I've got to say the data will speak for themselves and we just have to go and do our jobs for the best of our ability to see what's out there. You mentioned the the moons of Saturn and moons of Jupiter that are full of water or might be places we could find

life there because of that. Would you like to see them represented in films instead of just a dry, rocky place like in Dune? Yeah, yeah. I think planetary science, if it's taught us anything, it's that we've got to expect the unexpected when we explore outer space. You know, these surprising ocean worlds. Again, you know, that that was completely mind-blowing when people discovered them. And with the whole exoplanet revolution, we're discovering all sorts of new kinds of planets out there that I hope worked their way into science fiction one day. I love this idea, Ira, of depicting icy ocean worlds more in science fiction.

I think there could be some really fun adventure exploring the hydrothermal vents in the bottom of a Europa-like planet. That would be great. So if I put you in charge of making the next Hollywood Blackbuster, you might put us on a watery planet. Yeah, you know, I think it would be really fun to explore a super watery planet. Let me tell you about this type of world that we're currently investigating called a Heishan planet. That's kind of a weird name, right? Heishan, what does that mean?

So this is the type of planet that we think we may have discovered a few of them outside of our solar system orbiting other stars. these are planets that are somewhere in between the size of Earth and Neptune. And so they have one quality that is kind of like Earth and that they have a surface that is covered in an ocean of water. But the atmosphere is more like that of a giant planet, so full of hydrogen. And so if you smush the word hydrogen and ocean together, you get the word hychen. And so that's what a Heishen world looks like.

And so the idea here is that, you know, maybe there's a very. is life, swimming in that kind of ocean under a hydrogen-rich atmosphere, which I'll just emphasize that, again, our atmosphere is made up of nitrogen and oxygen, not hydrogen. So it would be a very different kind of environment with a very different kind of life. And it would be really fun to try to investigate or dream up in a Hollywood sense what life might look like on such a planet. Wow, that's a great idea. Mike, thank you for taking time to be with us today. Yeah, no problem. This was real fun. It was fun. Dr. Mike Wong. astrobiologist and planetary scientists at the Carnegie Institution for Science based in Washington.

After the break, the second film in our triple feature, The Longest Goodbye. This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Plato. NASA is getting ready to send humans to Mars. And although the launch date has been pushed back throughout the years, the agency says it wants to get there in the 2030s. And it has a lot on its to-do list, for example. NASA needs to build new rockets, new living spaces, spacesuits, radiation shielding, just to name a few. But one of the biggest challenges is not the engineering, but the mental health of the astronauts. Can all of the crew members get along with each other and stay alive over the course of three years in tight quarters and unforgiving environments? How will they cope with being separated from their families and friends for so long?

And what lessons can they learn from astronauts who have lived for months on the International Space Station and from our own experience of isolation during the pandemic? A new documentary explores all these questions and more. It's called The Longest Goodbye. It's out today, March 8th, and it dives into NASA's Human Factors Program, a group of psychologists who are trying to figure out the best way to preserve astronauts' mental health on a long and demanding mission away from their families. It was a really cold morning.

I remember when they're counting down, and then as soon as it lifts off, you could feel it in your chest. My mom is not on the planet. She's really gone. We all start wondering if we're doing the right thing, should I have been on this mission, should I have left my family back there,

and that can lead to death. devastating psychological effects. Sci-fi producer and host of our podcast Universe of Art, D. Petershmit, spoke to the film's director, Edo Mizrahi, and one of its featured astronauts, Katie Coleman, who's lived on the space station about the challenges that the longest goodbye presents. NASA has a lot of problems to solve before going to Mars. But the problem that captivated director Edo Mizrae most was not the engineering challenges,

but how the astronauts would cope, being separated from the rest of humanity. I found it amazing how kind of inadvertently NASA became this loneliness laboratory in the middle of what then became, you know, a loneliness pandemic. It was just a crazy sort of accident. When NASA has embarked on ambitious missions in the past, they've had to develop a lot of new tech to make them happen. Those discoveries are then passed down to the public,

and we can thank NASA for the Velcro in our clothing, the tiny cameras in our phones, and the technology that makes CAT scans possible. And now, as the Surgeon General is stated that we're in a loneliness epidemic, maybe the public can get new insight on isolation from the space agency's research. Here's a team that's trying to solve isolation in space, but wait a minute, it's actually for all of us. And trying to figure out the best way to build a team of astronauts who can complete and survive a grueling three-year mission is no small feat, especially where real-time communication won't be an option as the crew gets farther and farther away from Earth.

Every protocol possible needs to be automated and figured out. So many things have to be simulated. And the kind of autonomous mission that it becomes where these four or six people need to cover so many different expertise. Right. So like who do you send also? Do you send someone who's a doctor and a geologist? Because you want to get all that science done, but you also need to have these expertise that allow them to take care of themselves. So how many professions can four people contain, basically?

then also find the four or six people who make for the right team. So how do you test that and how can you simulate that in advance is what's on Dr. Holland's mind? Here's Dr. Al Holland, an applied psychologist at NASA's Human Factors Division in a clip from the movie. You look for the things that make a difference in a much, much longer mission. A team player, good communicator, has good judgment. is a history of living successfully in small groups, particularly under extreme conditions, because when we ask them to spend three years on a mission to a planet

that's a long way out on that tether, we'll see a gradual degradation of the environment. That makes for a really fascinating challenge that's new and they're never going to be able to totally predict what's going to happen. Someone who has some idea of how this could play out is Katie Coleman. a former NASA astronaut and Air Force colonel. In our work and our travels and our training, we spent so much time away from our families.

And my phrase is practicing bleeding. Meaning she knows a journey like this is going to hurt. So how does she prepare? Katie's completed two space shuttle missions and a six-month stay on the International Space Station. All told, more than 180 days in space. She also has a husband and a son, and that son was in the fourth grade

when she went up to live on the space station in 2010. NASA set up video conference system. between the astronauts and their families so they could keep in touch. Here's a clip of Katie playing Tic-Tac-Tow with her son while she's in space. If you love me more, you'd let me win. You know, I'm in space and lonely. If you love me, you'd let me win Tic-Tac-Tow. Okay.

Hold on. I'll go first this time. And I miss you guys that time. And, I don't know, sort of, it's a part on not knowing Sunday there, and it's all cozy, and maybe you guys even have a fire in the fireplace, and it's hard not to be there. And when her son acted out at school, partially because his mom was away, she couldn't be there to help out. Katie hadn't seen those video calls until the movie's premiere at Sundance. For me, it's hard to see, in black and white, you know, the mom that could not be there,

maybe could have smooth things out a little bit more if she was. It's hard. Here's Dr. Holland again. This is an environment in which things are moving very rapidly. And so we have to maximize the connectivity during that physical separation. because crew members' connection with the family is a critical piece of sustenance for them. A mission to Mars will amplify that because the sense of distance, the sense of separation is much more powerful. So it's a very hard problem, and they're going about it in very creative ways, I think. NASA's been working with outside behavioral experts to figure out new ways to deal with long-term isolation.

They're currently experimenting with virtual reality to immerse a new person. astronauts in calming nature environments or so they can interact with an avatar of their spouse. They're also working with IBM on a robotic AI companion called Simon, a foot-wide sphere with a screen that displays a simple face that can change expressions. It gets around the space station by blowing up puffs of air. And Simon serves double duty acting as an information resource and as a companion that astronauts can confide in for psychological help. And something I was surprised by was how reticent some astronauts are about sharing an accurate picture of their mental health

with their psychologist while in space. Psychologists have been doing this with astronauts for a while on the space station, but when you're traveling to Mars where real-time communication is impossible, how could an AI companion change that? Here's a clip from the film with astronaut Matthias Maur talking about his experience with Simon on the space station. But can I trust Simon? If I plug in cables and Simon says like,

hmm, Matthias, the last cable wasn't correct. And that's already the third cable that you put in the wrong place today. And Simon might say, like, Matisse, I think you're too tired today. You're not 100% fit. So Simon can provide a protocol to the psychologist, and they could look at these values and say, like, maybe Matthias isn't the perfect candidate for the next mission. I don't want them to find anything wrong with me, something that could disqualify me.

So you keep a lot of information towards yourself. I hope that Simon will not exclude me from the next mission. Now at this point, you might be thinking, we've been doing pretty well, making plenty of discoveries by sending rovers and satellites to other planets and moons. Why not just keep doing that and save everyone the heartache and danger? Astronaut Katie Coleman says there are solid scientific reasons to send humans. They can cover more ground,

get more samples, do more tests. But that's not the only reason she'd want to go. Here's Katie. You want so much to be there. You want to go back. I mean, it's the thing about space. It's quite addictive, right? Here's director Ido Mizrae again.

I think we're still kind of all recovering, both from being terrified of not being able to see my loved ones, and then suddenly toward the end of the pandemic, being terrified of leaving my home and reconnecting, and suddenly feeling a great sense of comfort and being isolated, which was also a very terrifying idea. So if this story kind of provides a way to act out some of those things in another prism, right, that kind of gives just enough distance where it's not as close to the bone,

it's happening to astronauts and allows that kind of disguise to help you kind of deal with stuff. We as humans from the planet Earth are leaving our planet and living in space and learning about how to go further and that the moon is next. And it's not something that's going to happen like someday. It's happening really now. The Longest Goodbye is out in limited theaters today, March 8th. And thanks to member station KPCW in Park City, Utah for their assistance. For Science Friday, I'm Dee Petersmith.

Thank you, Dee. And you can check out a trailer for the film at our website, ScienceFriday.com slash longest goodbye. Have you ever left a movie theater wondering about that one detail that just didn't make sense? Like, how did the main character hold their breath underwater so long? For this one I really like. Why are Galactic Stormtroopers such bad shots? Well, Science Friday's digital producer Emma Gomez is investigating the kernel of science behind some of those made-for-movie moments. Hi, Emma. What movie is on your mind this time? Hi, Ira. It's called 65. Have you heard of it? I have to say that I have not. That is fair. It came out pretty quietly in early 2023, but I am an Adam Driver superfan. So I did say,

it. But here's a comparison. Have you seen the movie Alien? Oh, I loved Alien, especially the part about the alien jumping out at you and scaring you half to death. Yeah, me too. I love that part. Well, 65 is kind of like a reversal of alien to me. Instead of humans coming to an alien world and getting attacked by aliens, in 65, aliens that existed 65 million years ago, crash land on a prehistoric Earth and get attacked act by dinosaurs. Oh, and the alien is Adam Driver. Adam Driver, that really sounds like fun.

It is. Yeah, I definitely spent a lot of this movie laughing. But after I was done, I came across a study about how a planet that resembles Earth during the Jurassic era would have signs of life that are easier to notice from space than modern Earth. And instantly, I was like, so why was Earth this unknown planet in this movie? And why weren't the aliens who visited more. prepared for what they would find there. So we found a real scientist who models exoplanets to talk about this premise. Yeah, you spoke to one of the scientists behind that study, Dr. Lisa Kaltenager,

the director of the Carl Sagan Institute and professor in astronomy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. So take it away. Hi, Dr. Kaltenegger. Welcome to Science Friday. Thanks so much for having me. So tell me, why would Earth during the Jurassic era be easier to spot from space than Earth today. Actually, the signs of life would be easier to spot because there'd be more oxygen that allowed for this huge dinosaurs to roam our beautiful planet. And so, signs of life would be just a tiny bit easier to spot. And when you say signs of life, what do you mean?

I mean, life changes the atmosphere of a planet. The oxygen we breathe is made by life. And there was a time about 300 million years ago. just when the dinosaurs started out when oxygen was in higher concentration. Hmm, that's interesting. So I read the paper that you wrote that kind of revealed this information to us. And to do that research, you refer to something called transmission spectra, which I've seen written as light fingerprint before.

Could you tell me what exactly are transmission spectra and what do they tell us? So if by chance we look at another star, another sun, just the right way, then when the planet goes between us and its sun, part of the light that the star sends out gets filtered to the air of that alien world before it hits my telescope. And light and matter interact. That means if you have a molecule, if you remember from school like water is age 12, so 2H10, you can hit it with just the right energy to make it swing and rotate. And if that happens, the light actually doesn't pass through the atmosphere to my telescope,

but it actually makes the molecule swing and rotate. So by what's missing in the light that gets to my telescope, it's kind of like a passport stamp. It tells me what molecules light met on its way to me, And thus, I can decipher the air or what's in the air on an alien world without getting there. And what would need to be in the air of an exoplanet, an alien world, in order for us to say that might be habitable? So the combination of oxygen with methane, methane is a reducing gas that reacts with oxygen. So oxygen and methane makes CO2 in water.

If you have oxygen and methane together in a nice warm world, just at the right distance, not too hot, not to cold from its sun, then we have no other explanation. Then we need life for this amount of oxygen methane to coexist. So that's in a way a golden fingerprint that we're looking for to decipher where life could be hiding on other worlds. Right. So what you and the co-author of this paper found then was that 300 million years ago there was this really high concentration of oxygen and that would be like a stronger signal then for, let's say, an alien to see at that time. Absolutely. And that's kind of the fun part because we think, oh, we've evolved. And so, you know, you might be able to look for technology. You're going to find humans. But if you take the Earth and its history, you find out, there were some times in our history, and it happens to coincide with when the big organisms like dinosaurs roamed the earth, where there was more of oxygen on the earth and also a bit more of methane. And so if these are the two gases we're looking for, it seems that a Jurassic

world would be actually easier to spot for an alien observer. Based on everything we've talked about, what do you think the main character in 65, who is this like advanced extraterrestrial, should have known about Earth before he landed on it. Well, it kind of seemed that there was like an unexplored planet so he didn't have much information before he crashed landed. But by just the amount of oxygen that he could find, right? If he had just a very first glimpse of the atmospheric composition,

it tells you that the amount of oxygen gives a lot of energy, thus there will be huge creatures, whether it's dinosaurs or something else. it's just like, watch out, make yourself small hide, would probably be my best guess. And then they never really say where these advanced aliens come from. So did he need more oxygen, too? Or he should have been like super, super hyped because with more oxygen, it's just going to be more energy available for you and me too. So we could maybe run a bit faster. Not that we could outrun a dinosaur, I don't think. But maybe it's going to be just a little easier to jog around. That's so interesting. Well, thank you.

you. Thanks, and I'm looking forward to the next sci-fi you're going to talk about. If you also wonder how science and movies could play out in real life, check out our Science Goes to the Movies newsletter. Every few weeks, you'll get a story in your inbox about the unexpected science that you can find in movies, whether they're out in theaters or streaming at home. Just visit sciencepriday.com slash movies. I'm Emma Gomez. That's it for today. Lots of folks help make this show happen, including Annie Nero. Jason Rosenberg. Rasha Aireedi.

Shoshana Bucksbaum. On tomorrow's episode, how scientists are preparing for an election year. Plus, a story about using soil and poop samples to trace back the evolutionary roots of antibiotic resistance. We'll see you soon. I'm Charles Bergquist. Thanks for listening.