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1. They didn't go into space. They went on a high altitude balloon. 2. If this were actually true, people's epipens would be getting destroyed in transport whe

1. They didn't go into space. They went on a high altitude balloon. 2. If this were actually true, people's epipens would be getting destroyed in transport whenever people fly on aircraft. There's even cosmic radiation on the ground. 3. Maybe don't automatically trust elementary schoolers to do good science.

RobotToaster 4y ago
>Maybe don't automatically trust elementary schoolers to do good science. We obviously need to get other elementary schoolers to perform a peer review.
vegardx 4y ago
I think you're being a little bit hard on them... There's no single definition of what we consider space. Some types of high-altitude balloons can easily take you to the edge of what most people consider space, which is at 100km above sea level. Or around ten times the distance from earth than your average commercial airplane. You're making a lot of assumptions on your second point. How do you know that EpiPens won't degrade when flying? There are some conflicting statements in the article, but it seems like you could make a good case for that assumption, based on their findings. If radiation from space transforms epinephrine we probably want to know about it so we can adjust recommendations for storage.
- boredpudding 4y ago
  > Some types of high-altitude balloons can easily take you to the edge of what most people consider space, which is at 100km above sea level. Or around ten times the distance from earth than your average commercial airplane. It's 18-37km for balloons, with the record being 53km. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_balloon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_balloon In the end, any discussion on this turned rough the moment the article started with 'Elementary school students in Canada recently schooled NASA scientists'. It makes everything suddenly a students vs scientists thing, and the details in the article are lacking or inconsistent. In my eyes, it should just be removed from Hacker News. We don't need this clickbait here.
- mhandley 4y ago
  100,000 ft is common for a high altitude balloon, but 100km is too high. The world record for an uncrewed balloon is around 50km. https://www.space.com/41791-giant-nasa-balloon-big-60-breaks-record.html https://www.space.com/41791-giant-nasa-balloon-big-60-breaks... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_altitude_record#Uncrewed_gas_balloon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_altitude_record#Uncrewe...
- Name_Chawps 4y ago
  Evidence against Epi-Pens degrading when flying: Planes often have onboard Epi-Pens that go through thousands of flights and still work.
rayiner 4y ago
Are you sure the problem isn’t that the reporting was also done by elementary schoolers?

RobotToaster 4y ago

>Maybe don't automatically trust elementary schoolers to do good science. We obviously need to get other elementary schoolers to perform a peer review.

vegardx 4y ago

I think you're being a little bit hard on them... There's no single definition of what we consider space. Some types of high-altitude balloons can easily take you to the edge of what most people consider space, which is at 100km above sea level. Or around ten times the distance from earth than your average commercial airplane. You're making a lot of assumptions on your second point. How do you know that EpiPens won't degrade when flying? There are some conflicting statements in the article, but it seems like you could make a good case for that assumption, based on their findings. If radiation from space transforms epinephrine we probably want to know about it so we can adjust recommendations for storage.

boredpudding 4y ago
> Some types of high-altitude balloons can easily take you to the edge of what most people consider space, which is at 100km above sea level. Or around ten times the distance from earth than your average commercial airplane. It's 18-37km for balloons, with the record being 53km. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_balloon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_balloon In the end, any discussion on this turned rough the moment the article started with 'Elementary school students in Canada recently schooled NASA scientists'. It makes everything suddenly a students vs scientists thing, and the details in the article are lacking or inconsistent. In my eyes, it should just be removed from Hacker News. We don't need this clickbait here.
mhandley 4y ago
100,000 ft is common for a high altitude balloon, but 100km is too high. The world record for an uncrewed balloon is around 50km. https://www.space.com/41791-giant-nasa-balloon-big-60-breaks-record.html https://www.space.com/41791-giant-nasa-balloon-big-60-breaks... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_altitude_record#Uncrewed_gas_balloon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_altitude_record#Uncrewe...
Name_Chawps 4y ago
Evidence against Epi-Pens degrading when flying: Planes often have onboard Epi-Pens that go through thousands of flights and still work.

rayiner 4y ago

Are you sure the problem isn’t that the reporting was also done by elementary schoolers?