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Space Pens

Interesting story about elementary school kids, EpiPens and space. Three things that don't automatically belong in the same sentence. When I first glimpsed through the story, I don't think I understood the implications but the incongruity of the three items made me read again and then I got the point. 

“In fact, no epinephrine was found in the ‘after’ EpiPen solution samples. This result raises questions about the efficacy of an EpiPen for outer space applications and these questions are now starting to be addressed by the kids in the PGL program.” The students’ findings have not only helped researchers understand the effects of cosmic radiation on epinephrine but also have real-world implications for space travel and astronaut safety.

What is article misses is just as relevant as what it talks about. It would be useful to understand what stoked the curiosity of one or more kids on this topic. Was there a personal connection to the EpiPen. The origin stories in such discoveries do matter. Nine year-olds tend not to dive deep into EpiPens as a matter of course. Those around kids of this age, could learn lot about how to kindle and feed curiosity - that is not the easiest problem to solve given the density of distractions in the lives of young kids. If this is just about adults working on building the portfolio and resume of their children - then its not quite as interesting. 

There will always be some of those overzealous parents who live vicariously through achievements of their kids - specially ones that demonstrate extreme precocity. I have known fifteen year-olds to write papers that could put PhDs to shame but those papers were only lightly touched by the purported author - parents did the heavy lift. The kid in question (thanks to the efforts of the parents) made it into a very prestigious university - almost inevitable given the resume this child had by the tender age of eighteen. So when I read such stories featuring one of more things that are not a natural fit for a nine year old, I always wonder about provenance. 

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