Melbourne, March 30: While attempting to make a device to stop people touching their faces during COVID-19 pandemic, an Australian astrophysicist stuck up four magnets in his nose. According to a report in The Guardian, Dr Daniel Reardon, a research fellow at Swinburne University, was building a necklace which stops people from touching their face by sounding an alarm. Coronavirus Prevention: Can Your Smartphone Infect You With COVID-19? Right Way to Clean Your Mobile Phone to Prevent the Spread of the Deadly Disease.

According to the report, the 27-year-old astrophysicist said that he was building circuits but was not an expert in the work. “I accidentally invented a necklace that buzzes continuously unless you move your hand close to your face,” Reardon said.

After scrapping the idea, he was playing with magnets and clipped them to his earlobes and then to his nostrils and things went worse when he clipped another magnet to another nostril. The two magnets stuck inside. He then decided to use remaining magnets to remove them.

Unfortunately, Reardon lost his grip on magnets and stuck those magnets in his nostril. Three magnets got stuck in his left nostril while the other one in his right.

The astrophysicist then rushed to a hospital, where doctors applied an anaesthetic spray and removed magnets from Reardon's nose. When doctors removed three magnets from his left nostril, the one magnet fell down to his throat which he coughs it out.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 30, 2020 12:33 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).