Halloween, which is observed annually on October 31st, is one of the most anticipated holidays of the year. Many families begin preparing for the fun celebration, which centers around dressing up in creative costumes and collecting candy, weeks in advance by giving their homes spooky makeovers. Filmmakers use the occasion to release horror movies, while enterprising entrepreneurs cash in on the holiday with creative haunted homes, corn mazes, and hayrides. So how did an obscure holiday transform into the fun, spooky celebration that we know today? Read on.
On Tuesday, November 3, 2020, Americans will decide whether President Donald Trump or Democratic-nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden will lead the country for the next four years. While voter turnout is expected to be amongst the highest in over a century, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a record number of voters to mail their ballots. Experts believe this could delay the outcome of the election by several days, or even weeks.
Scientists scrambling to find a cure for COVID-19 may have some help from an unexpected source — 14-year-old Anika Chebrolu. The youngster from Frisco, Texas, was named the winner of the 3M Young Scientist Challenge in a virtual event held on October 12 - 13, 2020, for her groundbreaking research that could lead to a cure for the coronavirus.
NASA's OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) probe made history on October 20, 2020, when it landed on Bennu, a 1,640-foot (500 meters) tall asteroid that lies 200 million miles away from Earth. The brief, six-second touchdown was planned to retrieve samples of the ancient space rock's surface and bring them back to Earth for analysis.
Oregon firefighters battling wildfires across the state have a new "force" on their team: a plush Baby Yoda doll. The adorable alien tyke, from Disney's popular Star Wars series The Mandalorian, has become a symbol of hope and joy among the first responders who have been tirelessly fighting the historic blazes that have wiped out communities and killed at least nine people since early September.
On October 14, 2020, Russia's Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft set a new speed record for transporting crew members to the International Space Station (ISS) in just 3 hours and 3 minutes. NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, blasted off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome at 1:45 AM EDT and safely docked at the ISS at 4:48 AM EDT. The monumental journey was accomplished using a fast-track, two-orbit flight path to the ISS.
When 22-year-old giant panda Mei Xiang gave birth to a healthy cub on August 21, 2020, Smithsonian's National Zoo officials were both excited and anxious. That's because giant panda cubs, which weigh about 100 grams — the equivalent of a stick of butter — when born, are challenging to keep alive. Unable to see, hear, or crawl, the helpless infants are completely reliant on their mothers for food and protection. As it turns out, they had little to worry about. The newborn, who celebrated his eight-week birthday on October 16, 2020, is thriving under Mei Xiang's care and showing signs of becoming a feisty toddler.
Suspended liquids and inverted floating boats may seem like something straight out of a Harry Potter novel. However, as a team of scientists at the ESPCI in Paris, France, recently demonstrated, the gravity-defying feats do not require magical spells — just the knowledge of some basic laws of physics!
