Ray cat

A ray cat^[a] is a proposed kind of cat that would be genetically engineered to change appearance in the presence of nuclear radiation. Philosophers Françoise Bastide and Paolo Fabbri originated the idea of a "living radiation detector"^[1] in 1984 as a proposed long-time nuclear waste warning message that could be understood 10,000 years in the future, building on the Human Interference Task Force's idea of oral transmission of radiation's dangers. Bastide and Fabbri did not specify a particular animal to be used, but coined the term "ray cat" to illustrate how name choice could convey the animal's function. They also did not specify how the animals' appearance should change, but ray cats are often conceived of as either changing color or glowing.

There is no evidence that the United States government ever seriously considered the "living radiation detector" proposal, and no radiation-detecting cats have ever been engineered, although in 2015 a lab in Montreal created the Ray Cat Solution movement in an attempt to begin designing them. The idea of ray cats has gained popular-culture notoriety, including inspiring a song that is meant to be optimally catchy so as to persist for 10,000 years. A 2019 report by the Nuclear Energy Agency concluded that Bastide and Fabbri succeeded at their real goal, raising awareness about the difficulties of dealing with radioactive waste.^[2]

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