IS IT BOLLOCKS?

Film Buff investigates the facts behind outlandish movie plots.

THIS MONTH DUNE: PART TWO

Q Could the water-recycling stillsuits be a viable means to help you survive in Arrakis-like desert conditions?

Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi saga has such a grounded tactility to it that it’s easy to believe that everything on screen is real. But could a stillsuit - which recycles sweat, urine and more into drinkable water (and salt) so efficiently that the wearer would not lose more than a thimbleful of liquid - be a realistic option in 2024, almost six decades after Frank Herbert initially envisaged the suits in his 1965 novel? The short answer seems to be that, while the idea is sound -NASA operates a ‘closedloop’ system on the International Space Station that captures and filters this water, ending up with a product that is reportedly cleaner than most of that we drink on Earth - the sheer size of the equipment needed to safely filter the water and reclaim the salt would be entirely unfeasible in portable form. Given technology’s tendency to shrink over time, it may be possible one day, although we’re nowhere near that kind of tech yet.

VERDICT MOSTLY BOLLOCKS