Photos: Best Science-Themed Halloween Costumes

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The large hadron collider (LHC)

large hadron collider

(Image credit: Shaun Peterson)

It's that time of year again, when people are racking their brains for a great Halloween costume idea. At LiveScience, we've collected some of our favorite science-themed costumes. Whether your bent is geology or particle physics, you'll find plenty of inspiration here.

For instance, you don't have to be a Nobel Laureate to appreciate atom-smashing! Why not go as the highest-energy particle accelerator ever made?

Melting glacier

melting glacier

(Image credit: Photo courtesy of Kristan Uhlenbrock.)

Halloween may come on a crisp autumn evening, but let's not forget the planet is warming, as this melting glacier demonstrates.

Sea turtle and plastic pollution

Sea turtle and plastic

(Image credit: Beth Terry)

For a socially conscious costume, some may choose to go as sea creatures and the plastic pollution that threatens them. These two won the costume contest at the 2009 Bay to Breakers footrace in San Francisco, Calif.

Faster-than-light neutrinos

faster-than-light neutrino

(Image credit: Photo courtesy of Josefa Steinhauer)

Whatever you do, don't break the laws of physics. In 2011, the discovery of neutrinos seemingly traveling faster than light caused a big stir. But it turned out just to be a technical difficulty with a fiber optic cable and clock oscillator!

Pinky and the Brain

Pinky and the Brain

(Image credit: FoxyTigre.com)

You and a friend can go as America's favorite genetically engineered cartoon mice. These two were featured at Comic Con International Masquerade Ball & Costume Contest in 2007.

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

(Image credit: Photo courtesy of Marshall Honorof)

Impress your friends with your amazing deductive abilities, and go as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's brilliant Scottish detective.

Fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster)

Fruit Fly

(Image credit: Photo courtesy of Josefa Steinhauer)

If you're a shy type, consider being a fly on the wall - and biology nerds will recognize their prized lab animal a mile away.

Volcano

Volcano

(Image credit: Photo courtesy of Kristen Slawter.)

Heat up the festivities as an erupting volcano. (Superheated magma not included.)

Tanya Lewis
Tanya Lewis
Staff Writer
Tanya was a staff writer for Live Science from 2013 to 2015, covering a wide array of topics, ranging from neuroscience to robotics to strange/cute animals. She received a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a bachelor of science in biomedical engineering from Brown University. She has previously written for Science News, Wired, The Santa Cruz Sentinel, the radio show Big Picture Science and other places. Tanya has lived on a tropical island, witnessed volcanic eruptions and flown in zero gravity (without losing her lunch!). To find out what her latest project is, you can visit her website.