Happy Halloween! Last week I asked our Twitter followers to share pictures of study organism costumes and nerdy pumpkins. Here’s the response!
University of Alaska Fairbanks fisheries grad student Ben Mayer makes a mean balloon animal. They’re not just for costumes! Check out the sockeye salmon in the lower left:
(source)
Ben isn’t the only one who makes his own costumes:
“Lighting to rig”?!
Necessity is the mother of invention. “Necessity” being operationally defined as “my kid insists on going as a specific, obscure species”:
Struggle is real for kids of biologists. Requests for species specific costumes is a thing. Spoiler alert: no rockh… twitter.com/i/web/status/7…—
Kerry Irish (@kerry_irish) October 29, 2016
Could’ve been worse, Kerry. She could’ve asked for “angler fish”. “And I want my lure to light up for real!”
Superheroes are always a popular costume choice. And from a human perspective, the ability to photosynthesize is a superpower:
“My belt buckle was a desmid” wins the thread, I think. 🙂
As for nerdy pumpkins, “pumpkin” is such a broad term:
Here’s my pumpkin. Did you know that pumpkins are cannibalistic?
Ok, I know that’s not really a science-y pumpkin, but I’m still pleased with it. 🙂 Pleased as I am with my effort, though, it doesn’t hold a candle (ha ha) to those of the amazing Ted Stankowich:
And finally, stay safe out there tonight:
Dynamic Ecology 
Great pictures 🙂 And a Happy Hallowe’en back at you all at Dynamic Ecology! https://jeffollerton.wordpress.com/2016/10/31/tuggie-lanterns-halloween-and-the-botany-of-festivities/
Thanks Jeff!
This is a wonderfully nerdy costume:
That’s a nerdy Halloween costume and old school science cred all in one!
Via Twitter:
Another one from twitter:
WOW! No disrespect to Ted, but as a Darwin groupie I gotta give that pumpkin the thread victory. 🙂 Great design, great execution.
I agree! Great design! I’ll have to raise my game next year!