Dr Daniel Reardon of Australia ’s Swinburne University was attempting to link up the fighting against the coronavirus pandemic . It did n’t shape , but he has earned massive respect for his self - deprecating tone after being hospitalized with brawny magnets stuck inside his nose .
Being an astrophysicist , not a microbiologist , Reardon was n’t likely to invent a novel intervention . Nevertheless , follow in the stride of the Australian radio astronomer whoinvented WiFi , he think his acquisition might be transportable . Reardon guess a machine that sound a warning alarm before you touch on your face , thus keep the most common form of infection of COVID-19 , the respiratory illness known to transmit via droplets on surfaces , mitt etc .
With a magnetic field detector and time on his hand while ego - isolating Reardon bought some powerful atomic number 60 magnet online and started to tinker , but his product come out backwards . “ I accidentally invented a necklace that buzzes ceaselessly unless you move your hand skinny to your face , ” hetold the Guardian .
Reardon admitted to IFLScience this problem could have been solved with aNOT gate , but he did n’t have one in the electronic equipment he was using , and had learned his charismatic subject field sensor was n’t sensitive enough for the job anyway .
Like many an inventor upon encountering obstacle , Reardon get down playing with his equipment , in this case the magnets , clipping them either side of his ears and then his nostrils , which was where things go wrong .
With two attraction inside his anterior naris and two outside all was well , but when he removed the outside ones those inside gravel to each other on either side of his septum . Oblivious of advice regarding holes and delve surcease , Reardon test to use the other two magnets to pull out the intimate ones .
“ At this point , my partner who crop at a infirmary was laughing at me , ” hesaid . “ I was trying to pull out them out but there is a ridge at the bottom of my nozzle you ca n’t get past .
Like any good Millennial , Reardon googled the trouble , but the solution required more attractive feature than he had . “ As I was pulling downwards to try out and remove the magnets , they clipped on to each other and I lost my grip . And those two attractive feature cease up in my remaining anterior naris while the other one was in my right hand . At this point I run out of magnet , ” he toldthe Guardian . alloy plyers got bewitch , which made thing worse , not better .
“ My partner took me to the hospital that she works in because she wanted all her colleagues to laugh at me . ” Unsurprisingly , they did , saying thing like , ‘ This is an injury due to ego - isolation and tedium . ’ ”
Reardon , who has made a full recovery , told IFLScience he decided to give the story to the world , rather than hiding because “ I think masses could do with a laugh at the import . ”
Reardon ’s work , which he says is actually going quite well at the moment from home , involves collecting pulsar observations from radio telescope across Australia and South Africa , let in the famousParkes Dish . He is enter in psychoanalyse bantam change in pulsar timing to detect gravitational waves and “ explore fundamental physics in very dense environments . ” He ’s participating in the ongoing quest toverify General Relativityagainst competing theories . “ These observation could also be used for interstellar space navigation , ” he told IFLScience .
The good humor with which he trace his misadventure has win Reardonsocial medium fame , at least topically , although he is probably yet to match Matt Agnew , the astrophysicist from the same department who was last year’sAustralian Bachelor .
Reardon told IFLScience he has not been biz to play with the magnets again , but says anyone with better equipment is welcome to go forward the pursuance to make his concept a reality .
