Background
A group of 15 French volunteers have emerged from a cave after a 40-day study exploring the limits of human adaptability to isolation.
Deep Time project
For 40 days and 40 nights, the French group lived in and explored the cave as part of the Deep Time project. There was no sunlight inside, the temperature was 10 degrees Celsius and the relative humidity stood at 100 per cent.
Cave dwellers
The cave dwellers had no contact with the outside world, no updates on the pandemic nor any communications with friends or family.
Human Adaption Institute
Scientists at the Human Adaption Institute leading the $1.5 million “Deep Time” project say the experiment will help them better understand how people adapt to drastic changes in living conditions and environments.
The director of the project, French-Swiss explorer Christian Clot, said time seemed to pass more slowly in the cave.
Coronavirus pandemic
The objective of the study has particular relevance during the coronavirus pandemic, a time when lockdown measures have confined millions of people to isolation.
