The story of a Russian physicist sticking his head in an accelerator is told here: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/3468/what-would-happen-if-you-put-

The story of a Russian physicist sticking his head in an accelerator is told here: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/3468/what-would-happen-if-you-put-your-hand-in-front-of-the-7-tev-beam-at-lhc http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/3468/what-would-h.... Half of his face was badly burnt but he survived and even completed his PhD!