Home
News
In Focus
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Restaurants get off to a quick start thanks to game-changing policies
High service charges on event ticket refunds call for further regulation
Sunday
- Subscribe
Related News
Italy's record-breaking cave dweller dies
Source: Agencies |
September 21, 2009, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ITALIAN sociologist Maurizio Montalbini, who spent months dwelling in caves to study how the mind and body cope with complete isolation, has died at 56.
Montalbini died of a heart attack on Saturday while in a mountain hamlet near the central Italian town of Macerata, said Guido Galvagno, a longtime colleague. Galvagno said the death did not appear connected to Montalbini's record-breaking cave stays.
Montalbini spent a total of two years and eight months underground since he started his experiments in the 1980s, according to a biography on his Website.
In 1987 he claimed his first world record after spending 210 days alone in a cave in the Apennine mountains. A year later he led an international team of 14 spelunkers, including three women, to take the world group record with an underground stay of 48 days.
During his endurance experiments Montalbini subsisted mostly on a high-calorie diet of powdered foods and pills similar to those used by astronauts. Scientists on the outside monitored him through instruments.
Montalbini's biography says his experiments were done in collaboration with NASA and top universities worldwide. They yielded insights on the effects of long-term isolation including weight loss, changes in the perception of time and in the sleep and menstrual cycles.
For the sociologist, who worked with drug addicts before turning to spelunking, the experiments were also a personal challenge of willpower.
"One cannot fight solitude, one must make a friend of it," he said after his 1987 exploit. "I succeeded in doing this. I carried everything inside me for seven months - affections, convictions, ideals."
Montalbini broke his solo cave-sitting record in 1993 by living a year and one day in an underground base built to study the reactions of people on simulated space missions.
In his last experiment, which ran through 2006 and 2007, Montalbini spent 235 days in the Apennine's "Grotta Fredda" (Cold Cave).
Montalbini, who had no children, is survived by his wife.
Montalbini died of a heart attack on Saturday while in a mountain hamlet near the central Italian town of Macerata, said Guido Galvagno, a longtime colleague. Galvagno said the death did not appear connected to Montalbini's record-breaking cave stays.
Montalbini spent a total of two years and eight months underground since he started his experiments in the 1980s, according to a biography on his Website.
In 1987 he claimed his first world record after spending 210 days alone in a cave in the Apennine mountains. A year later he led an international team of 14 spelunkers, including three women, to take the world group record with an underground stay of 48 days.
During his endurance experiments Montalbini subsisted mostly on a high-calorie diet of powdered foods and pills similar to those used by astronauts. Scientists on the outside monitored him through instruments.
Montalbini's biography says his experiments were done in collaboration with NASA and top universities worldwide. They yielded insights on the effects of long-term isolation including weight loss, changes in the perception of time and in the sleep and menstrual cycles.
For the sociologist, who worked with drug addicts before turning to spelunking, the experiments were also a personal challenge of willpower.
"One cannot fight solitude, one must make a friend of it," he said after his 1987 exploit. "I succeeded in doing this. I carried everything inside me for seven months - affections, convictions, ideals."
Montalbini broke his solo cave-sitting record in 1993 by living a year and one day in an underground base built to study the reactions of people on simulated space missions.
In his last experiment, which ran through 2006 and 2007, Montalbini spent 235 days in the Apennine's "Grotta Fredda" (Cold Cave).
Montalbini, who had no children, is survived by his wife.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
