“When I was eight, I was stung by a wasp and we found out I was having an allergic reaction. So, we went to an allergist in Saskatchewan, and he said we had to keep one of these adrenaline pens with me at all times.
“I was nine years old at the time and I didn't really like it because it was like that because I was a boy and I didn't like it. Yeah. So, I used my father's skin.”
Various incarnations of the leather wallet were part of his science fair display with the quality of the leather being improved in each successive piece along with the stitching.
The first one was 2.5 inches wide and nine inches long, which could hold a pen, but he discovered it wasn't the Adrenaline Pen inside its protective plastic case.
So he made one a little bigger, and then another one out of thick brown leather, waxed string, and a loop sewn onto the back so you could hang his belt.
“I can just put my belt on and I can walk around,” he said.
The case also has an end cap with a snap closure so he can access it at any time.
Lachlan only needed treatment the first time he reacted to a wasp sting, but he says 2.5 million Canadians rely on the ideas to treat anaphylaxis.
“But only one in five Canadians wear their clothes when they actually need them. “So I'm not sure how many deaths are happening, but it's not good,” he added.
If he can find tougher leather, he'll use it in the next round, but he admits that punching holes in the leather will be a challenge.
Like many other scientists, Erica Levy-Kseniuk conducted her experiments on herself.
She thought that wearing a soft mask over her eyes might help with lucid dreams (those that you can remember).
I found some very soft fabrics and designer masks that not only stay put while you sleep, but will also be comfortable.
But the data did not support the hypothesis.
“The conclusion I came to was that lucid sleep masks don't work all the time and they don't even work for certain people. So you can't guarantee a lucid dream, but you can help sometimes,” she said.
She wore the masks a few nights at a time in order to collect the amount of data she needed but didn't have time to make her final design.
None of the scientists got to see how successful their tagging projects were, but the winners can go to the Canadian Broad Science Fair in Ottawa.
—
