The BBC's Science Focus has published an interesting little piece on the likely origins of Frank Herbert's Dune.

Like, actual dunes.

As a reporter in 1957 he was tasked with writing about migrating dunes in Oregon which were a threat to towns.

The government was considering using grasses to halt the dunes - an ecological rather than technological solution.

Deserts, dunes, ecological transformation.

[ Main Image: Dune, Liet Kynes. Credit: Warner Bros. ]

References

Parsons, Paul (October 26, 2021). The science of Dune: where the ideas behind the story’s strange universe came from. Science Focus.