Nikolai Kryaglyachenko was 12 years old in 2014 when he claimed that a pole changed his life. The boy, from Omsk, Siberia, said that after returning from school and leaning against a pole with faulty wiring, he suffered an electric shock that threw him into the street. According to his account, he arrived home dazed, told his mom, and the next morning, woke up with coins stuck to his body. He also said that during breakfast, a spoon he dropped ended up stuck to his chest.
A comic book fan, Nikolai was quick to dub his ability a Magneto-style power. Though he admitted that he didn’t fully control it and sometimes attracted things unintentionally, the story made him a minor celebrity among his schoolmates, who constantly asked him for demonstrations.
Science, however, has a much more down-to-earth explanation for this type of phenomenon. Experts clarify that the human body does not generate magnetic fields and that objects stick because of the skin itself: friction and natural oils act like a kind of suction cup that holds lightweight items such as coins or cutlery.