Astrophysicist, inventing coronavirus device, gets magnet stuck up nose
Fiddling with electronics without proper knowledge or expertise can lead to some drastic incidents - and not in a good way. Case in point: Daniel Reardon, a 27-year-old astrophysicist who strived to develop a device to contain the spread of coronavirus but ended up being hospitalized after getting four magnets, a part of his little experiment, stuck up his nose. Here's what went down.
Reardon wanted a device that warned against touching face
Reardon, who has been studying pulsars, gravitational waves, was spending time in self-isolation when he decided to work on a device, an alarm of sorts, that could stop people from touching their faces, which is how coronavirus moves into the body. He had no prior experience in building circuits but decided to go ahead with the project using four neodymium magnets, The Guardian reported.
Plan to trigger alarm with magnets on wrists, said Reardon
"I had a part that detects magnetic fields. 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."
However, things didn't go as he planned (obviously!)
While working on the circuit, Reardon realized that the electronic part he was using completed the circuit when there was no magnetic field around. As a result, the device did the exact opposite of what he tried and buzzed "continuously unless you move your hand close to your face." So, he scrapped the ill-fated project and began playing with magnets to pass his time.
And, that's when he got them stuck up his nose
While playing with the magnets, the scientist placed two of them inside his nostrils and the other two outside. Then, as soon as he put the outside magnets away, the ones on the inside got stuck together. "I was trying to pull them out but there is a ridge at the bottom of my nose you can't get past," he told The Guardian.
Google search made the situation worse for him
With two magnets already stuck up his nose, Reardon looked up the problem on Google and figured that bringing more magnets could offset the pull of the internal ones. He tried using the other two magnets on a single nostril (the left one), but as he pulled downward, they clipped on to each other and also went inside.
Direct pulling with pliers was of no help either
"Every time I brought the pliers close to my nose, my entire nose would shift towards the pliers and then the pliers would stick to the magnet," Reardon said. "It was a little bit painful at this point."
Finally, he was hospitalized for medical assistance
As the situation had worsened and Reardon was in pain, his friend took him to a hospital where doctors used an anesthetic spray and removed the magnets manually from his nose. "When they got the three out from the left nostril, the last one fell down my throat," he said, noting that he was able to lean forward and cough it out.
