An Australian scientist has been hospitalised after getting four magnets lodged up his nose while trying to create a device to stop people touching their faces during the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr Daniel Reardon, 27, an astrophysicist from Melbourne, was trying to use his time in self-isolation productively by creating a necklace that would help prevent the spread of coronavirus by alarming if your hand came too close to your face.

The research fellow said boredom had inspired him to be creative and play around with the powerful magnets.

“I was just playing – tinkering with some electronics to invent something that buzzes if you bring your hand too close to your face. “But the device turned out to buzz continuously unless you moved your hand too close to your face.”

The 27-year-old, who admitted he had no experience in building circuits, said he then abandoned that idea and began to play with the powerful neodymium magnets.

“This is when I started attaching them to my face, and eventually my nostrils, before they got stuck in my nose.”

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When he began to struggle to remove the magnets, he googled what to do in that situation.

He said: “A case with an 11 year-old boy came up – the solution for him was for the doctors to offset the pull with more magnets, so I tried the same.

“It was working until I slipped and got more stuck up there!”

Removing the magnets by hand proved too painful, and after an hour of trying to remove the magnets with pliers, the astrophysicist decided to go to hospital.

The 27-year-old said doctors used a numbing spray to try and remove the magnets but eventually succeeded by pulling them out by hand.

He added: “The doctors saw the funny side of things – apparently it’s not the only isolation inspired injury they’ve seen.”