Caltech smashes pumpkins in annual tradition

Smashing Halloween pumpkins is usually a prank, but at Caltech, it's an experiment.Pumpkin smashing has become an annual tradition at Caltech.

According to school tradition, there was once a claim that dropping a pumpkin frozen in liquid nitrogen from a sufficient height would cause pieces of the pumpkin to glow as they shattered.

Students drop the pumpkins every year off Millikan Library and look for the glow.