This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of apply.

Being a smart person does not forestall making foolish mistakes. Case in point: Australian astrophysicist Daniel Reardon. With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Reardon decided to tinker with a magnetic system that would warn people not to touch their faces. A noble idea, yes, but what followed was a comedy of errors that ended with Reardon in the hospital with four magnets stuck in his nose.

As doctors are oftentimes reminding united states lately, touching your face can cause infection via virus particles on your hands. Information technology's skilful advice to follow, but we all absentmindedly practise information technology from time to time. Dr. Reardon'south thought was to use a magnetic field detector and neodymium magnets to fix off an warning if the wearer's hand got as well shut to their face up. Reardon studies pulsars and gravitational waves, just he admits to having no particular feel with electronic circuitry. Therein lies the problem.

Reardon started by putting two pocket-sized magnets inside his nostrils and 2 on the outside to hold them in place. This immune him to test the magnetic field detector, moving it toward and away from his confront. The fatal flaw in his plan was using powerful rare-earth magnets. He attempted to remove the magnets with some other magnet, but the shape of the nostril prevents the sandwiched magnets from sliding out. Every bit he attempted to pluck the magnets from his nose, he lost his grip and all the magnets became stuck to each other. This left Reardon with 3 powerful magnets in his left nostril and one in the right, all stuck together with his septum in between. "At this bespeak, I ran out of magnets," Reardon said.

If this happened to you (and don't go thinking you're too smart to get yourself in this situation—Reardon is an astrophysicist, subsequently all), you'd probably become for pliers or tweezers to try and become the magnets out. That's what Dr. Reardon attempted, but the magnets simply magnetized the pliers, making it impossible to grab them.

Luckily, Reardon's partner works at a Melbourne hospital and took him to the emergency room so all her coworkers could become a laugh. Dr. Reardon was a good sport about it, and the staff was able to remove the magnets. The emergency room belch paperwork shows that Reardon denied in that location are any more magnets in his nose. Thank goodness. We at ExtremeTech applaud Dr. Reardon's outside-the-box thinking.

Now read:

  • Apple Launches COVID-19 Cocky-Screening Website, App
  • UK Plans to Roll Out fifteen-Infinitesimal Home Coronavirus Test Kits This Week
  • NASA Pauses Work on James Webb Infinite Telescope Due to COVID-19 Pandemic