An astrophysicist got magnets wedged up his nose while inventing a coronavirus inspired device.
Australian Dr Daniel Reardon ended up in hospital after inserting the magnets into his nostrils. He was attempting to build a necklace that warns the wearer when they touch their faces, according to The Guardian.
The 27-year-old research fellow at a Melbourne university, said he was trying to liven up the boredom of self-isolation. He had planned a necklace that sounded an alarm upon facial contact.
“It’s the same logic as clipping pegs to your ears – I clipped them to my earlobes and then clipped them to my nostril and things went downhill pretty quickly when I clipped the magnets to my other nostril,” he said.
Mr Reardon said he put two magnets inside his nose, and two on the outside. When he removed the outer magnets, the two inside stuck together. He then attempted to use his remaining magnets to remove them.
After struggling for 20 minutes, he decided to Google the problem.
“The solution in that was more magnets to put on the outside to offset the pull from the ones inside.
“As I was pulling downwards to try and remove the magnets, they clipped on to each other and I lost my grip. And those two magnets ended up in my left nostril while the other one was in my right. At this point I ran out of magnets,” he told The Guardian.
Mr Reardon attempted to use pliers to pull them out, but they became magnetised.
At the hospital, two doctors manually removed the magnets from Mr Reardon’s nose.
The astrophysicist told Guardian Australia he would not attempt further experiments with the magnets, and would find other ways to pass the time while in self-isolation at home.
