Rays

The Disney-esque hues on bluespotted ribbontail rays come from a unique arrangement of nanostructures, say researchers. The findings, along with those gleaned from studying blue sharks, could help lead to new chemical-free color techniques.

Earth has been blasted by the second strongest ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray ever observed. While its origins remain unknown, astrophysicists are pointing the finger at the Local Void, a fundamentally empty area of the cosmos next to the Milky Way.

GPS doesn’t work as well inside buildings, underground or underwater. Now engineers in Japan have developed and tested an alternative technology that uses cosmic rays to track movement beneath a building with precision of a few meters.

As if the ray fishes weren't unusual enough already, it turns out that their sperm is also unique. Scientists have now created a robot inspired by those sperm, which may someday lead to smaller descendants that swim within the human body.

Scientists examining shark and ray populations across the globe have published an alarming study depicting a rapid decline of these species over the past half century, with the blame mostly resting at the feet of unsustainable fishing practices.

Scientists at the University of Exeter have turned to Twitter for a better picture of the effect ocean plastics are having on sharks and rays. Summing these reports, they identified more than 1,000 individual sharks and rays seen entangled in ocean waste.

A big challenge humanity faces in venturing off Earth and into deep space is how to tackle the dangers of cosmic radiation.​ A team has now discovered a drug treatment that could not only prevent cognitive deficits caused by this radiation, but actually repair damage in the brain after exposure.