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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Lifestyle
Nicole Puglise

Nasa scientists battle for best Halloween pumpkin with flying UFO and Pac-Man

From simple pumpkins to elaborate creations.
From simple pumpkins to elaborate creations. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty Images

Here’s a friendly reminder never to challenge an engineer to a pumpkin carving contest.

The scientists at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) took things to the next level in its sixth annual pumpkin carving contest on Thursday. Rather than crafting classic, grinning jack-o’-lanterns the engineers added some mechanical twists to their elaborate creations.

There was a pumpkin turned spinning UFO, complete with a cow being pulled up by a beam of light. One team created a Pac-Man pumpkin, with a mouth that opened and closed. There was even a riff on the 2016 presidential election. One pumpkin celebrated JPL’s 80th birthday, which is on 31 October.

The lab posted a gallery of photos and videos on Flickr and Aaron Yazzie, a mechanical engineer at JPL, shared some of his favorites on Twitter.

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