Haunted Physics Lab Draws Big Crowds

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by Elizabeth DiLauro | A student presents at the Haunted Physics Lab.

by Dakota Antelman

Even though its longtime leader Robert Van Buren retired last year, the Haunted Physics Lab continued on Wednesday under new leadership from physics teachers Rebekah Whitesel and Paul D’Alessandro. The event drew scores of community members to the halls of Hudson High School, just as it always had.

Students and parents of a wide array of ages attended on Wednesday night. They were presented with nearly 15 different experiments, all showing aspects of science that are viewed as hard to believe or otherwise supernatural.

Outside, several other physics students stood by the decorative entrance to the event. Attendees paid for admission in canned goods, which were later donated to the Hudson Food Pantry. Attendees donated a total of 300 individual items.

“The boxes [of food] are so big that we need two people to carry each,” Whitesel said. “The community was very generous.”

The event itself had gone through changes since many attendees had last seen it. When Van Buren retired last year, he took with him a few of the exhibits that had been traditional hits, including the theremin, a howling musical instrument that was always a hit in his time running the event. D’Alessandro and his crew stepped up their year however and created new exhibits for the event. This list of newcomers was highlighted by the makeshift band set, made out of PVC pipe and 5-gallon buckets that D’Alessandro built.

In its first year under new leadership, the Haunted Physics Lab thrived. It equalled attendance records set in previous years, accumulated an impressive sum of donated food, and continued to enthral community members in the way that Whitesel and D’Alessandro hope it does.

“We’ve got to a point where we don’t have to do much advertising for this,” D’Alessandro said. “It just travels by word of mouth, and people come because it’s something they do. You see people who have been here or every Haunted Physics Lab for years. We’re also at a point now where a lot of the kids presenting had been here before. It’s really part of the community.”