Not to derail your excellent Benazir diary or anything, but since you mentioned Dune, I thought I'd throw in a reference to a new book, The Science of Dune, that attempts to analyze the, um, science of Dune.

Authors and experts examine what Herbert gets right and what he gets wrong, how lasguns might work and if Bene Gesserit and mentat capabilities are possible. The book also takes a look at whether the ecology of Dune is realistic or if it's theoretically possible to get information from the future. Could humans really evolve as Herbert suggests? How can one build a windtrap or a stillsuit?

I have no idea how it is; I haven't read it and probably won't ever get around to it, but I know about it because someone I know wrote one of the chapters.  Knowing that we have a number of Dune fans (and scientists) around these parts, I was curious what folks here would think about it.