“It was like pressing pause.“
Social isolation — extreme edition. A group of 15 volunteers emerged from a dark cave in southwestern France on Saturday, after living 40 days in complete isolation — with no sense of time, natural light or communication with the outside world. The group participated in an experiment designed to help scientists better understand how people can adapt to extreme changes in living conditions and the environment. On March 15 eight men and seven women, aged 27 to 50, went into a cave in Ariège, France, where they spent the next 40 days and 40 nights as part of the Deep Time mission, a project conducted by the Human Adaption Institute. After spending that time with no watches, phones, sunlight or any updates from their families outside, the group came out on Saturday “with big smiles on their pale faces,” according to The Associated Press.
