my best jack o'lantern

[jinian]

Why is this so awesome? Well, I really had a great time carving the pumpkin with a tiny saw and linoleum-carving tools. But the concept is all about SCIENCE!

The little bat creature inside is a stoma (pores in the plant epidermis, which I study) with bat wings and teeth; I made up stomabats a few years ago and have put them up in the lab every year since.

The spiky bits around the sides are trichomes (plant hairs often made of single live cells), because the stomabat is in a stomatal crypt. Actual botanical thing meets Halloween meets AWESOME. I am very pleased.

Also, here is a list of trick-or-treaters encountered:

- Pink princess with mom in Oscar the Grouch hat
- Reaper with the mask from scream
- Streaky crimped hair and red cape -- a mage? Cyndi Lauper?
- Four -- witch and some others, I do not even know
- Sparkly Dorothy and pink ballet-like person
- Like seven of them, including a not-too-Disney Snow White and a tiny firefighter who didn't get the "trick or treat" memo and tried to do a chin-up on the bowl instead
- Thor and a green-sparkling fairy