Both over-the-counter antihistamines and prescribed epinephrine auto-injectors have an expiration date, after which their effectiveness diminishes.

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With plastic intake manifolds and head-mounted injectors, it weighs a scant 234 pounds.

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Epinephrine injectors were thought to be primarily used to treat bee stings.

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"You can go up and down the personnel chart and find out who knows about fuel injectors for jet engines, " Aaron says.

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He watches engine temperatures carefully and has to make sure he doesn't push the fuel injectors so far that they are always open.

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And it must run on diesel five minutes before shutting down to purge the system of grease, which can clog fuel lines, filters and injectors.

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The most severe reactions require the use of an injection of epinephrine to subside, which is why many people with food allergies carry auto-injectors for emergencies.

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To achieve these feats, Nektar's scientists performed hundreds of hours of computer simulations, tested more than a dozen different formulations of dried insulin and traveled around the world drawing inspiration from ancient Chinese seeds, plants in the Mexican desert and production techniques used in making instant coffee, powdered milk, aviation aerodynamics, truck fuel injectors and industrial vacuum pumps.

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