by Playfuls Staff |
16th October 2006
An Italian sociologist has moved underground with 85 books, a supply of honey, walnuts and chocolate and an [more] array of medical monitors.
Maurizio Montalbini already holds the world's record for longest time underground -- 366 days. On Thursday, he entered a 10-meter-square (33 feet on a side) chamber constructed in a cave near the eastern Italian town of Ascoli Piceno, The Guardian reported.
Most of his food will come in capsule or pill form. But he has taken some long-lasting goodies with him.
Montalbini's support team has been instructed to leave him be as long as the monitors show the test is going well.
So far, Montalbini has spent a total of about three years living like a hermit. His experiments and similar ones have shown that people cut off from the regular day-night cycle tend to have longer "days."
Montalbini told the newspaper La Repubblica that he thought only 219 days had passed during the year he spent underground.
Some people who have tried living underground have collapsed psychologically. In one case, the hermit committed suicide.
© 2006 UPI
