Origins of “The Glass Scarab”

“The Glass Scarab” was inspired by a National Geographic special on glass in the Egyptian desert that appears to have been formed by a prehistoric meteor strike. The story imagines a Mars that is constantly pummeled by meteors, the adaptations that life would have to make in such an environment, and the uses to which those life forms might put the by-products of meteor strikes.

I’m not sure exactly what form the Martians in the story take. They’re not humanoid, obviously; they’re probably insect-like, some having evolved heavy carapaces capable of protecting them in the meteor-prone surface environment, and others adapted to a life underground. Their technology is relatively advanced, but appears to be more inward-turned than our own; they don’t seem terribly interested in space travel, or really even with what might exist beyond Mars. I’ve imagined that they suffer from C.P. Snow’s “Two Cultures” to more or less the same degree we do (or most of us do; I suspect that the average reader of science fiction is probably equally at home in both “cultures” of art and science), though the incident of the meteor at the end cuts short any further discussion of this . . .

I don’t know as the glass that Igxkyal finds by the Martian lander is scientifically accurate; I don’t really know that the rocket engines might create a different kind of glass than a meteor would. If you’re a stickler for scientific accuracy, consider these possible explanations:

1. The rocket’s engines contain significantly less energy than a meteor impact, and so would cause a different kind of glass.
2. The rocket’s engines may use a technology not currently known, with different temperatures and chemistry than our current rockets and so have a different impact on Martian sand.
3. The chemical and geological properties of Martian sand are not necessarily the same as those of terrestrial sand; the sand may well be constituted of a different ratio of silicon and carbon and other such things than the sand we know, and so forms different kinds of glass under different conditions than the sand in these parts.

In the end, science fiction is largely a matter of compelling special pleading.