1 . A school science project by a group of students in Canada has led to an important discovery: EpiPens, which help control dangerous allergic (过敏的) reactions, might not work in space.
An EpiPen is a shot that puts a medicine called “epinephrine (肾上腺素)” straight into a person’s body with a needle. The epinephrine calms the allergic reaction so the person can breathe.
But students in the Programme for Gifted Learners had a question about EpiPens: Would they work in space? The students knew that on Earth, radiation from the sun can change the molecules (分子) of the epinephrine in an EpiPen. They wondered if the same thing would happen when epinephrine was exposed to radiation in space. So the students designed an experiment to test their idea. They wanted to send samples of the liquid in an EpiPen, as well as pure epinephrine, into space to see if anything changed.
Working with a group called iEDU, which offers a programme called Cubes in Space, the students sent two cubes into space — one on a rocket and the other on a balloon. Each cube held a bottle of pure epinephrine and a bottle of EpiPen liquid.
After the cubes returned to Earth, Dr. Mayer tested the liquids in the bottles once more. The results suggested that the students had discovered something big. The bottles that held the EpiPen liquid now had no epinephrine at all. The results from the bottles of pure epinephrine were even more surprising. Only 87% of the liquid was still epinephrine. The other 13% had turned into poisonous chemicals.
The discovery the students made is a big deal. It suggests that EpiPens might not work in space, and might even become dangerous. That’s important information for astronauts with allergies. The students now hope to repeat their experiment a second time, to check their results. They are also working on designing a container that could protect epinephrine in space.
1. What are EpiPens used to do?| A．Help astronauts breathe properly in space. | B．Aid in solving anything urgent in space. |
| C．Avoid exposing astronauts to radiation. | D．Contribute to managing severe allergic reactions. |
| A．To test whether epinephrine changes in space. |
| B．To test the purity of epinephrine in space. |
| C．To test the difference of radiation on Earth and in space. |
| D．To test the disadvantages of epinephrine. |
| A．Astronauts who have some allergies. |
| B．Chemistry teachers in the middle school. |
| C．People who have allergic symptoms in their bodies. |
| D．Experts doing research about space in the lab. |
| A．What Is EpiPen and What Does It Do? | B．Kids Discover Poisonous EpiPen in Space |
| C．Student Scientists Study the EpiPen in Space | D．Useful in Space? A Funny EpiPen Project |
