A Yale University astronomy major described as “simply brilliant” died overnight while working on her senior project when her long hair was pulled into a lathe in a laboratory machine shop, according to news reports out of New Haven, Conn.
Michele Dufault, from Scituate, Mass.,would have graduated next month.
She was found sitting at a metal lathe with her hair wrapped around part of the machine. Exactly when the accident occurred is unclear. The university says it happened Tuesday night, but New Haven police and firefighters responded to an emergency call at the Sterling Chemistry Laboratory at 2:33 a.m. today, the New Haven Register says.