David Blaine has just completed a shocking new stunt. Billed as “a death-defying act which was his most dangerous yet and would astonish millions”, the event saw Blaine stand in the middle of a million volts of electric current streamed by Tesla coils. He stood there for 72 hours straight. His only protection was a suit of armour and a specially designed helmet. He describes the sensation of being electrocuted to being “banged very hard on the back of the head”.

David Blaine: Electrified took place over the weekend. And while a lot of fans were blown away by his ability to do this, some members of the science community were not terribly impressed.

According to John Belcher, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a co-investigator on a plasma experiment aboard NASA’s Voyager 2 craft, there is “no danger in this that I see”.

He is wearing a Faraday suit made of highly conductive stainless steel. All the current is going through the suit, nothing through his body. Workmen use one if building high-voltage power lines and amateur physicists sometimes fashion their own while studying Tesla coils. I would do [this stunt], and I am 69-years-old and risk-averse. I just would have to take a nap.

William Allen Zajc, a physicist at Columbia University, was also unimpressed:

The only notable thing was that Blaine was having to stand for 72 hours.

Check out a video as a well as some images from Blaine’s performance, below:

[Source: Daily Mail]