Magnet mishap puts would-be inventor of virus device in hospital

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 earlobe 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."