This is from today's Daily Telegraph:
Australian astrophysicist gets four magnets stuck up his nose while trying to create anti-coronavirus device
He was taken to hospital after trying to create a device that would prevent people from touching their faces
There have been many tales of bravery and sacrifice by medical workers fighting Covid-19 around the world, but none quite compares to the Australian astrophysicist who got four magnets stuck up his nose while trying to develop a device to prevent people from touching their faces. Dr Daniel Reardon, a research fellow at Melbourne’s Swinburne University, had to be taken to hospital after his efforts to build a necklace that sounds an alarm on facial contact went awry.
The 27-year-old, who studies pulsars and gravitational waves, said he was trying to combat boredom as well as Covid-19 when he began experimenting with four powerful neodymium magnets. “I thought that if I built a circuit that could detect the magnetic field, and we wore magnets on our wrists, then it could set off an alarm if you brought it too close to your face… I accidentally invented a necklace that buzzes continuously unless you move your hand close to your face,” he told Guardian Australia .
After abandoning the idea, Dr Reardon continued to tinker with the magnets, at one point placing two inside his nostrils and two on the outside. When he removed the outer magnets, the two inside didn’t budge.
“At this point, my partner who works at a hospital was laughing at me… After struggling for 20 minutes, I decided to Google the problem and found an article about an 11-year-old boy who had the same problem. The solution in that was more magnets.”
Dr Reardon then tried to use the outer magnets to extract the inner ones, and all four got stuck.
Before going to hospital, he attempted to use pliers to pull them out, but the pliers themselves became magnetised, causing a fair degree of discomfort. At the hospital, a team of two doctors applied an anaesthetic spray and manually removed the magnets from Dr Reardon’s nose, but the chaos wasn’t over. While three of the magnets came out, the one in his right nostril fell down his throat. Fortunately, he was able to cough it out.
“Needless to say I am not going to play with the magnets any more,” he said.
Now you would think that somebody at sometime in his training would have said to him: "Look mate, you're an astrophysicist, so don't do anything you're not trained for that will be beyond you, like maybe picking up a rugby ball, making a cup of tea, that sort of thing."
This really does beggar belief. Nonetheless let's hope his recovery is quick and complete.
Australian astrophysicist gets four magnets stuck up his nose while trying to create anti-coronavirus device
He was taken to hospital after trying to create a device that would prevent people from touching their faces
There have been many tales of bravery and sacrifice by medical workers fighting Covid-19 around the world, but none quite compares to the Australian astrophysicist who got four magnets stuck up his nose while trying to develop a device to prevent people from touching their faces. Dr Daniel Reardon, a research fellow at Melbourne’s Swinburne University, had to be taken to hospital after his efforts to build a necklace that sounds an alarm on facial contact went awry.
The 27-year-old, who studies pulsars and gravitational waves, said he was trying to combat boredom as well as Covid-19 when he began experimenting with four powerful neodymium magnets. “I thought that if I built a circuit that could detect the magnetic field, and we wore magnets on our wrists, then it could set off an alarm if you brought it too close to your face… I accidentally invented a necklace that buzzes continuously unless you move your hand close to your face,” he told Guardian Australia .
After abandoning the idea, Dr Reardon continued to tinker with the magnets, at one point placing two inside his nostrils and two on the outside. When he removed the outer magnets, the two inside didn’t budge.
“At this point, my partner who works at a hospital was laughing at me… After struggling for 20 minutes, I decided to Google the problem and found an article about an 11-year-old boy who had the same problem. The solution in that was more magnets.”
Dr Reardon then tried to use the outer magnets to extract the inner ones, and all four got stuck.
Before going to hospital, he attempted to use pliers to pull them out, but the pliers themselves became magnetised, causing a fair degree of discomfort. At the hospital, a team of two doctors applied an anaesthetic spray and manually removed the magnets from Dr Reardon’s nose, but the chaos wasn’t over. While three of the magnets came out, the one in his right nostril fell down his throat. Fortunately, he was able to cough it out.
“Needless to say I am not going to play with the magnets any more,” he said.
Now you would think that somebody at sometime in his training would have said to him: "Look mate, you're an astrophysicist, so don't do anything you're not trained for that will be beyond you, like maybe picking up a rugby ball, making a cup of tea, that sort of thing."
This really does beggar belief. Nonetheless let's hope his recovery is quick and complete.
