Coronavirus: Australian scientist gets magnets stuck in his nose after Covid-19 device mishap

Daniel Reardon landed in hospital with magnets stuck up his nose while trying to invent a necklace that would buzz to stop users from touching their faces

The astrophysicist said his nose was ‘recovering well’ and had not sustained any permanent damage

Reading Time:1 minute

Daniel Reardon said his nose was ‘recovering well’ and had not sustained any permanent damage. Photo: Daniel Reardon/Twitter

Published: 8:50pm, 31 Mar 2020Updated: 8:52pm, 31 Mar 2020

An Australian astrophysicist bored by coronavirus isolation saw his attempted invention to stop people catching the disease go hilariously wrong when he landed in hospital with magnets stuck up his nose.

Daniel Reardon, a research fellow at Swinburne University in Melbourne, was working to create a necklace-like device that would buzz when its wearer brought their hands too close to their face.

He told public broadcaster ABC that after the first version failed he began “mindlessly” clipping magnets – a key component of the device – to his face while sitting on the sofa.

“I first started with my ear lobe and then my nostril,” he said.

“Eventually I had pairs of magnets in both nostrils and they all closed together, leaving them pinching across my septum.”

Reardon spent an hour trying to remove the magnets before his partner, a radiologist at a Melbourne hospital, convinced him to go to her workplace so doctors could extract them.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x