The following story courtesy of The Wall Street Journal

By Stephen Miller and Davide Berretta

In the name of science, Maurizio Montalbini lived for months all alone in a cave.

Mr. Montalbini, who died Sept. 19 at 56 of a stroke apparently unrelated to his unorthodox experiments, became his own best research subject for studying the effects of isolation on circadian rhythms, the immune system and human psychology.

His research provided insights useful for planning long space voyages, as well for researchers interested in the body's natural time-keeping functions.

A sociologist by training who early in his career directed a drug-addiction clinic, Mr. Montalbini began spending time in isolation in the early 1980s, with training periods of a few days to a few weeks. In 1986, he entered the Grotte di Frasassi, beneath Italy's Apennine mountains. He subsisted on pills and powders and other astronaut fare while outside researchers monitored his vital signs. His few concessions to luxury included chocolate, honey and lots of tobacco -- he consumed nearly two packs of cigarettes daily.

While underground and away from sunlight, Mr. Montalbini lost nearly 30 pounds. He would stay awake for 50 hours at a time, then sleep for five. He read books and wrote a novel, "Where the Sun Sleeps." He said he enjoyed his time underground, except when there were earthquakes.

"One cannot fight solitude, one must make a friend of it," he said when he emerged after 210 days. He thought it had been only 79 days. Underestimating the amount of time one has been alone turned out to be the rule.

Mr. Montalbini helped coordinate the underground stays of two Italian women, one of whom spent 130 days and the other 269 days in isolation in caves while being observed by scientists. His own record was 366 days, set in 1992-3 at the Grotte di Nerone, which he subsequently inaugurated as a permanent laboratory dedicated to isolation research. He dubbed it "Underlab." He treated patients for sleep disorders and stress with techniques he called "Under-Therapy."

Before Mr. Montalbini began his investigations, others had spent periods of time alone underground in the name of science, including Michel Siffre, who someone once called "Cousteau of the Caves," who in 1972 completed 205 days in isolation.

Mr. Montalbini's contribution was "the longest series of measurements, and in a very comfortable environment," says Franz Halberg, a University of Minnesota professor widely regarded as the founder of the science of chronobiology.

Says Mr. Halberg, "Montalbini showed that deep in a cave you still had the effects of the cosmos" -- such as electromagnetic effects from space. Mr. Halberg is credited with coining the term "circadian rhythms" to describe the biological clock, and says that Mr. Montalbini's data helped confirm longer biological cycles, for instance the "circaseptan," a week-long period during which certain biological functions resolve.

Mr. Montalbini was driven by "an absolute desire to gain knowledge and to discover the limits of humans," says Guido Andrea Galvagno, a medical doctor specializing in space medicine who collaborated with Mr. Montalbini.

Caves were not Mr. Montalbini's only laboratory. In 1990, long before reality television, he emulated Robinson Crusoe as a simulated shipwreck survivor on an island in the Adriatic. A year later, he spent 48 days adrift in a rescue raft testing survival techniques and satellite mapping gear.

Despite his penchant for isolation, Mr. Montalbini said he much preferred the company of friends.

"I'm not going back in there," he said in 2006, after completing 235 days at Grotta Fredda, another Apennine cave. "I need the sun. I used to dream about the dawn."

___________________________________________________

Associated Press story

ROME (Associated Press) — 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 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 Web site.

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 on space flights. 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 and endurance.

"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 individuals and crews on simulated space missions.

In his last experiment, which ran through 2006 and 2007, Montalbini spent 235 days in the base built in the Apennine "Grotta Fredda" (Cold Cave).

Montalbini, who had no children, is survived by his wife, Galvagno said.