…each of the lines in which light (and heat) may seem to stream from the sun or any luminous body, or pass through a small opening…
…a broad flat marine or freshwater fish with a cartilaginous skeleton, wing-like pectoral fins, and a long slender tail. Many rays have venomous spines or electric organs…
…(1627–1705), English naturalist. Ray was the first to classify flowering plants into monocotyledons and dicotyledons, and he established the species as the basic taxonomic unit. His systematic scheme was not improved upon until that of Linnaeus…
…(1890–1976), American photographer, painter, and film-maker; born Emmanuel Rudnitsky. A leading figure in the Dada and surrealist movements, he is known for his photographs in which images were manipulated and superimposed on one another…
…(1921–92), Indian film director, the first to bring Indian films to the attention of Western audiences. Notable films: Pather Panchali (1955)…
…a system of naming the notes of the scale (usually doh, ray, me, fah, soh, lah, te) used especially to teach singing, with doh as the keynote of all major keys and lah as the keynote of all minor keys…
…an electromagnetic wave of high energy and very short wavelength, which is able to pass through many materials opaque to light…
…a format of DVD designed for the storage of high-definition video and data…
…(in science fiction) a gun causing injury or damage by the emission of rays…
…a large long-tailed ray which has a fleshy horn-like projection on each side of the mouth. It occurs on or near the surface of warm seas and feeds on plankton…
…a large marine ray with long pointed pectoral fins, a long tail, and a distinct head…
…(1902–84) US entrepreneur and philanthropist; full name Raymond Albert Kroc. In 1955, he began his franchise empire of McDonald’s fast-food restaurants…
…(1904–87), US dancer and actor; full name Raymond Wallace Bolger. He is best known for his role as the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz (1939)…
…a beam of electrons emitted from the cathode of a high-vacuum tube…
…(1930–2004), American pianist and singer; born Ray Charles Robinson. Totally blind from the age of 6, he drew on blues, jazz, and country music for songs such as ‘What’d I Say‘ (1959) and ’Georgia On My Mind' (1960)…
…a highly energetic atomic nucleus or other particle travelling through space at a speed approaching that of light…
…(1907–86), US actor; born in Wales; born Reginald Alfred John-Truscott-Jones. His many movies include The Lost Weekend (1945), A Life of Her Own (1950), and Dial M for Murder (1954)…
…a fungal disease of chrysanthemums that causes collapse and rotting of the leading shoot…
…(in a composite flower head of the daisy family) any of a number of strap-shaped and typically sterile florets that form the ray. In plants such as dandelions the flower head is composed entirely of ray florets…
…an imaginary line representing the path of light from an object to the eye…
…(1920–2012), American writer of science fiction; full name Raymond Douglas Bradbury. Notable works: The Martian Chronicles (short story collection, 1950) and Fahrenheit 451 (novel, 1951)…
…a small ray of warm coastal waters with very broad triangular fins…
…a sluggish bottom-dwelling marine ray that typically lives in shallow water and can produce an electric shock for the capture of prey and for defence…
…(in double refraction) the ray that obeys the ordinary laws of refraction…
…a small almost transparent freshwater fish with an opaque body cavity. Native to South America, it is popular in aquaria…
…a device for generating X-rays by accelerating electrons to high energies and causing them to strike a metal target from which the X-rays are emitted…
…a fish of a large group having thin fins strengthened by slender rays, including all bony fishes apart from the coelacanth and lungfishes…
…(in double refraction) the light ray that does not obey the ordinary laws of refraction…
…medical treatment of a disease using controlled doses of X-rays…
…a high-vacuum tube in which cathode rays produce a luminous image on a fluorescent screen, used in televisions and computer terminals…
…(1956-), US boxer; full name Ray Charles Leonard. Named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 1980s, he won five world titles in five different weight divisions…
…a person who brings happiness into the lives of others…
…the branch of astronomy concerned with the detection and measurement of high-energy electromagnetic radiation emitted by celestial objects…
