Enter SciFri’s nerdy Halloween costume contest!

It’s Nightmare on Nerd Street—and your science-inspired Halloween costume could win SciFri’s 2026 costume contest.

Submissions for the contest are closed. Find out how to vote on the finalists below!

Two kids stand in a grassy yard, one dressed in a suit with an upturned umbrella, the other wrapped in gray tulle with leaves and objects like a small house entwined.
Our 2025 Halloween costume contest winners: a weatherman (left) and a tornado (right). Submitted by their grandmother, Denise Mackey

Nightmare on Nerd Street is back for 2026! Whether you’re going as a computer bug, a sci-fi character, a freaky photon, wombat poop, or an Artemis II astronaut, we want to see how you’re bringing science to your Halloween costume this year!

Share your costume for a chance to win a SciFri merch gift bag filled with surprises—and possibly a chance to chat with Flora on the show!

How To Enter:
Submit a photo of your science-inspired Halloween costume by November 1 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

How We’ll Choose:
Our team of SciFri judges will select the top costumes based on creativity, scientific flair, originality, and Halloween spirit. “Scientific flair” can be interpreted a lot of different ways—from the literal to the theoretical, historic, or literary. What about puns? Yes. Nature stuff? Absolutely. Individual and group costumes are allowed.

How To Vote:
The finalists will be posted on Instagram, Facebook, and BlueSky on November 2 at 4:00 p.m. ET. You’ll have until November 4 at 12:00 p.m. ET to cast your votes.

The Winner:
The costume with the most combined votes from all platforms will be crowned the Best SciFri Halloween Costume for 2026. The winner will get a fabulous bag of SciFri swag, and we’ll announce them on the show!

So grab your lab coat, break out the glitter glue, and get ready to make science spooky!

Need inspiration? Check out a few of our 2025 finalists:

A person in a floppy green plastic suit with six "arms" extending from the sides with blue lab gloves as hands
A fantastic tardigrade. Submitted by Amanda Erickson
Two people dressed as cartoon scientists, one with orange hair, the other with a green head
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his faithful assistant, Beaker. Submitted by Rye Dickson
Two women in jeans and cowboy boots and cowboy hats smile, holding lab tools
Western blots! Inspired by the western blot lab technique for analyzing and identifying the expression of specific proteins within a sample. Submitted by Jen Davila
Zombie-like poeple wrapped in detailed red and green tube-like costumes
What if the carnivorous plants were huge and they ate us? Submitted by Patrycja Milliner
Black and white photo of several people in a row dressed as various rock stars
Heavy metal rockers, including Axel Rhodium and Lead Zeppelin. Submitted by Alicen Teitgen

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