What if you were born into a world that only blinks into existence once a year, and lasts for mere weeks or months before disappearing again? How would you live your life?

We can find the answer in East Africa, where a fish lives out its entire lives in rapidly shrinking pools of water.

During the rainy season, water fills small depressions in the savannah, creating temporary ponds.  It’s the cue that the turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) has been waiting for. Its eggs, encased in mud and lying dormant within the soil, finally hatch. Right from the start, the baby fish are on borrowed time. They have a couple of months before their puddle dries out. Before that unpredictable deadline, they’ve