Category Archives: The Liminal Times

Don’t Go Into The Forest


Sharks have been on Earth longer than trees.

Some species of trees that line city streets predate the dinosaurs by millions of years, but when it comes to the truly ancient, you need to look to the oceans. Sea-dwelling creatures have a many-millions-of-years head start on any terrestrial life-forms. Take, for instance, the shark: This apex predator of the sea has been stalking the world’s oceans for upwards of 450 million years. Meanwhile, the very first forests filled with Earth’s very first trees, in the genera Wattieza and Archaeopteris, likely didn’t sprout on land until the mid-Devonian period some 385 million years ago. However, it’s worth noting that the animals some scientists consider the first “sharks” likely didn’t look like the magnificent predators of today. First appearing in the Late Ordovician, these creatures sported shark-like scales, but likely didn’t yet possess the species’ most memorable trait — a terrifying set of teeth.

Surviving that long as a species is no easy feat. Only a few million years after the shark’s appearance on the world stage, these proto-sharks (along with the rest of life on Earth) suffered through the Late Ordovician mass extinction. This event was the first of five major extinction events in Earth’s history, and sharks survived them all; not even trees can add such an impressive accolade to their resume. So the next time you cross paths with a shark, whether behind the glass of an aquarium or on-screen in the act of devouring the residents of Amity Island, don’t forget to marvel at this amazing animal’s incredible story of survival.

Duh duh, duh duh.


Water Water Everywhere And Not A Drop To Drink


The moon has glass beads that may contain billions of tons of water.

If we hope to one day colonize the moon, a few things are absolutely necessary for our survival. Chief among these necessities is water; we can’t live very long without it. Because Earth is nestled in the life-supporting comfort of our sun’s Goldilocks zone(not too hot, not too cold), water can be found on its surface in abundance — but what about the moon?

In the late 2000s, various space missions discovered hydration on the moon, but it wasn’t clear if it was water or a related molecule called hydroxyl. In 2020, NASA finally confirmed that water is distributed across the lunar surface. But a potentially game-changing discovery arrived in 2023, after the Chinese Chang’e-5 lunar mission discovered that small glass spherules, also known as impact glasses or microtektites, contained H20 — possibly some 330 billion tons of it — on the lunar surface.

These water-filled beads are formed in a complex process of space chemistry that’s kick-started by meteorites slamming into the moon at hundreds of miles per hour. The spheres contain oxygen that reacts to ionized hydrogen in solar winds to form water. This is potentially a huge boon for future astronauts — whether NASA or otherwise — who hope to establish a moon base, as these widespread, water-filled spheres can be boiled and then cooled to extract potable water vapor. And so while the moon’s dull and lifeless surface may seem inhospitable to human habitation, with every new discovery, our celestial neighbor is looking more and more welcoming.

And the hurricane risk is pretty small.

Really, He’s Less A Devil’s Advocate Than Satan’s Cabana Boy

Devil’s advocate was once an official position in the Catholic Church.

The term “devil’s advocate” is a familiar label for someone who argues a position they don’t agree with just to make a point, but its origins are more literal than you might expect. In 1587, Pope Sixtus V established the position of advocatus diaboli, or “devil’s advocate,” as part of the process of beatification or canonization — aka becoming a saint. The devil’s advocate was the church’s skeptic, picking apart stories of reported “miracles” and more to argue against someone’s sainthood. The advocate had to be present for any part of the sainthood process to be considered valid. However, the title was primarily a popular moniker — the position’s official designation was the “promoter of the faith,” or promotor fidei.

For hundreds of years, sainthood was relatively rare, but Pope John Paul II (head of the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005) believed the church needed more examples of sanctity, so he effectively abolished the position of devil’s advocate in 1983 as part of a revision of the canonization procedures. He also shortened the posthumous waiting period for saints from 50 years after death to just five years. These and other changes ushered in an unprecedented number of new saints. In the 600 years before John Paul II, around 300 people were declared saints. In the less than three decades of his papacy, John Paul II oversaw the canonization of 482 saints. The current pope, Pope Francis, has continued this new tradition by canonizing nearly 900 people (including Mother Teresa, Anglican convert Cardinal John Henry Newman, and Swiss seamstress Marguerite Bays) — whether the devil likes it or not.