Friday, October 13, 2006

Sociologist Will Spend Three Years in Cave

An Italian sociologist hopes to spend up to three years hunkered in a small, chilly underground cave in central Italy to better understand the body's natural cycles.

Maurizio Montalbini, 53, moved into his new grotto home on Wednesday.

He intends to pass more than 1,000 days drinking water from a small pipe, and eating food pills at meals. But he's also brought a few treats: four kilogrammes (10 pounds) of honey, two kilogrammes (4.4 pounds) of nuts and 1.5 kilogrammes (3.3 pounds) of chocolate, according to La Repubblica.

His sojourn aims to better understand the body's natural rhythms to determine better medical dosages and fight stress and insomnia

Montalbini's new home—80 meters (262 feet) underground—is two meters (6.6 feet) wide, and 50 meters (164 feet) long and five meters (16.4 feet) meters high. The cave's temperature fluctuates between 9 degrees C (48 F) 10 degrees C (50 degrees F).

The sociologist is no stranger to grotto life. He beat a world record for the feat in the early 1990s, after living just over a year in a cave.

I remember reading in National Geographic about his first cave-living experience. It totally messed with his body clock, as I recall.

No comments: